Tyrone continued its offensive surge Friday against Central Cambria, rolling up 497 yards of total offense in a 55-19 victory at Gray-Veterans Memorial Field. It was the Golden Eagles’ third straight game scoring more than 30 points and their second in the last three with more than 400 yards in offense.
After battling to build a 21-13 lead after a wild first quarter, Tyrone exploded to score five straight touchdowns to lead by 42 in the fourth quarter.
Here are four takeaways from the game.
FIRST DOWN: PLANS AND ADJUSTMENTS
Tyrone clearly had an idea of where it was going to attack the Red Devils, and that was through the air. The Eagles’ first play from scrimmage was a 35-yard completion from Ashton Walk to Trent Adams, and their first score came two plays later when the same combination clicked for a 19-yard touchdown.
It would become a familiar pattern. Adams ended with a career-best 8 catches for 165 yards and 4 touchdowns, while Walk completed 17 of 18 passes for 314 yards. The offensive execution was as good as it’s been this season for Tyrone.
But as important as carrying out a game plan was Tyrone’s ability to adjust. While Coach John Franco said they expected running back Grady Snyder to take snaps at quarterback, he admitted they weren’t prepared for the option looks involving Snyder that burned the Eagles’ defense in the first quarter.
On Snyder’s second carry, he broke free for a 62-yard score, and before the period was finished he had added another from 33 yards out. Both came after he kept the ball following handoff fakes up the middle.
But given time, the Golden Eagles’ defense figured things out. After the first quarter, Snyder had just one more long run – a 17-yarder in the second – and Central Cambria’s offense took a dive once he was contained. Of the 235 yards the Devils’ produced, 141 of them came in the first quarter, Of the 9 plays Tyrone stopped behind the line of scrimmage, 7 came after the first quarter.
That’s the sign of a maturing defense, and it’s happening at just the right time. Tyrone plays its last scheduled regular season game Friday at Penns Valley before playing in the Laurel Highlands Week 10 crossover game just once week before the playoffs begin.
SECOND DOWN: UNGUARDABLE
Nothing in football is guaranteed, but in four full games for Tyrone Trent Adams has proven about as close to a sure-thing as humanly possible.
Despite missing two full games and parts of two others with a shoulder injury, Adams has become Walk’s clear go-to receiver, and he’s delivered on every opportunity he’s been given. He’s had 100 yards receiving in all of his four complete games, and in spite of the time missed he’s slowly entering the realm of the program’s elite production guys.
His 165 yards against the Red Devils placed him in the top 10 for single-game receiving yards at No. 7 and his 4 touchdown receptions gave him 10 on the season, good enough for a second-place tie on Tyrone’s all-time list.
The players who top out Tyrone’s list of top receivers came in all shapes and sizes and each had their strengths. There have been possession and hands guys like Eric Desch, speed guys like Steve Johnson, and athletic freaks like Ross Gampe and Damon Gripp.
But few have harnessed a bit of everything in the way Adams does. His hands are as reliable as they come, and while he runs stop and go and slant patterns with precision, he’s also got the speed to run away from defenders once the pass is secured.
The one player who would rival Adams in all those areas would be Nick Patton, who also happens to be the program’s all-time leader in single-season and career receiving yards. A player with elite track and field speed, Patton made a career of running pinpoint short routes to set up deep homerun balls, and he rarely missed a pass.
Adams is cut from the same cloth, and while the early injury may keep him from topping the marks left by Patton, he’ll be in the conversation. Either way, his presence has paid enormous dividends for the Eagles’ offense, which is averaging 38.8 points in the four complete games he’s played.
THIRD DOWN: DEPTH BUILDING AND RETURNING
Tyrone fans old enough to have watched the team in the late-1990s through the 2010’s can probably recall end-game situations during frequent blowouts. After building big leads, Franco would insert his junior varsity players in the second half, and quite often those players would extend the score against the opponents’ varsity starters, forcing the coach to go even deeper into his bench for reserves.
More often than not, managing a blowout was more than just getting players in. It was also finding the right combinations to prevent scores from getting completely out of hand.
Tyrone in 2024 isn’t there yet, nor is the team even close to that. But with players getting healthy, offensive numbers are increasing and other players are getting chances late in games.
Against Central Cambria, they also produced some big plays. Sophomore Caleb Whitby is one example.
Whitby was expected to play a role in the Golden Eagles’ offense in the preseason, but he was sidelined with a sprained ankle for 6 weeks after spraining his ankle in Week 1 against Clearfield.
He returned against Huntingdon, and last week he carried six times in the fourth quarter for 36 yards, including a 15-yard touchdown while the Devils’ were still playing mostly starters. His shiftiness made him tough for the Devils to target cleanly, and he showed exceptional speed on his touchdown run. What’s more, his strong showing made it clear he couldn’t stay in much longer because he was a threat to score whenever he got the ball.
Later, backups Isiah Suhoney and Dylan Robinson had tackles for losses when Tyrone was on defense.
The Golden Eagles still have hopes that injured players like linemen John Stanton and Owen Oakes can made a return this season, and that would make the team considerably deeper and stronger. But the group is doing a lot with the players it has and the ones that have already come back from injury.
FOURTH DOWN: ANOTHER 0-FOR
Tyrone’s schedule this season was unforgivably front-end loaded. Over the first six weeks, the Golden Eagles played two teams that are yet to lose a game (Bishop Guilfoyle and Clearfield), and three defending District champions. They also got Bellwood-Antis when it was 5-1 and hot as midsummer black top.
But the back end is decidedly weak, and in Huntingdon and Central Cambria the Eagles faced two teams who are now a combined 0-for-16.
Those matchups gave the Eagles an opportunity to get some things right and build confidence down the stretch, and the same chance is there again this week when Tyrone travels to Spring Mills to face Penns Valley.
The Rams are currently 0-8 and have yet to hold a team below 34 points. They’ve surrendered 50 points three times this season and are currently giving up 44.8 points per game.
That presents a challenge along with opportunity. While the ultimate opportunity is to earn a third straight win, the challenge is to maintain the level at which they’ve played for the better part of the last three weeks.
Tyrone’s running game and pass protection have gotten sizably better, and as a result Walk has been sacked just once in the last two weeks, and Seth Hoover has run for 100 yards in two of his last three games.
Those are areas where the Eagles can’t afford to take a step back, no matter who the competition is. They face a similar challenge on defense, where the unit has done enough in the last two weeks to win the turnover battle twice after not doing so in Weeks 1 through 7.
On paper, the Penns Valley game could easily appear like a forgone conclusion, but there’s a lot for the Eagles to prove, and at 4-4 they’re still not good enough to take any team for granted.
ORANGE AND BLACK 