Believe it or not, there was a time last night when Penns Valley and Tyrone were in a bit of a dog fight in Spring Mills, tied 14-14 early in the second quarter.
When you look at the final score, that seems almost inconceivable, but it shows how efficient the Golden Eagles have become on offense over the last four games.
Tyrone won 82-26, matching a record for points in a game that was set just a couple of years after women in the United States were given the right to vote. The year was 1923, Tyrone was in its third season of high school football, and the Orange and Black defeated Martinsburg 82-0 in the season opener.
That’s a a record that’s not easy to run down, and it’s not one Golden Eagles coach John Franco was looking for against the Rams, a team that lost its ninth straight game this season and gave up more than 50 points for the fourth time.
“I apologized to Marty, and he said, ‘No, that was us,’” Franco said after the game, referring to Penns Valley coach Martin Tobias. “Sometimes a game gets out of hand like that. Our offense was just really excellent tonight in all phases. I was really pleased with how we progressed offensively. We still have some work to do on defense.”
Tyrone scored on all seven of its first-half possessions to build a 48-14 lead and then answered a Valley touchdown in the third quarter with Seth Hoover’s third scoring run to get the mercy rule clock rolling. By then, Franco probably would have been happy to not score again and simply run out the clock.
Instead, Tyrone scored four more touchdowns while running just two offensive plays, paving the way for a newcomer to break another old record along the way.
It all started with this pick-6 by Kyler Suhoney, who made a play on a pass by Colby Miller that had been batted in the air by Ashton Emigh.
The 45-yard return made it 62-20 with 6:32 left in the third quarter, but the Rams responded with a 52-yard scoring drive that ended when Koltin Shawver got free on a 40-yard touchdown.
On the ensuing kickoff, sophomore Caleb Whitby had the ball go through his hands near the 15. He recovered at the 5, reversed his field, and sprinted the distance for a 95-yard touchdown.
Titus Novak, the younger brother of injured kicker Dante Novak, came on for his ninth PAT try, which would have set a new record for PAT kicks in a game, but the snap was low and holder Eli Woomer had to break off the play and try to pass for two. He couldn’t connect so the score stayed 68-26, but it wouldn’t remain that way for long.
On the first play of Valley’s next series, Sahoney sacked Rams quarterback Colby Miller for a 6-yard loss and caused a fumble that was scooped up by Cian Hockenberry and returned 36 yards for a score that made it 74-26 with 1:56 left in the third.
This time Novak, who had just joined the team two weeks ago and was playing his first varsity game, split the uprights, breaking a 25-year-old record for PAT kicks in a game set by Scott Gummo in 1999 and tied by his brother Ben Gummo in 2004.
But the Eagles still weren’t done. After the Rams turned the ball over on downs on their next possession, which lasted the remainder of the third quarter and into the fourth, Isaiah Suhoney took a dive handoff designed to help run out the time and got loose for a 54-yard touchdown run. Novak’s tenth PAT tied the 101-year-old scoring record.
“They made plays and took advantage of opportunities. We didn’t stop them,” Tobias said.
Plays were there to be made all night for Tyrone, which went over 30 points for the fourth consecutive game with an offense that is firing on all cylinders. The Golden Eagles accumulated 623 yards of total offense, produced their best rushing attack of the season, and had two receivers go over 100 yards.
Ashton Walk completed 17 of his 20 passes for 350 yards, just 10 yards shy of the single-game record he established a year ago against the Rams in Tyrone. He threw 5 touchdown passes and went without an interception for the second straight game.
Eli Woomer had the best day of his career with 5 receptions for 148 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Trent Adams had 4 receptions for 106 yards and a touchdown, and Hoover carried 17 times for a career-best 196 yards.
“I was especially pleased that, after we came out (in the second half) with a very poor beginning, we went right down the field and got four or five first downs, and we scored,” said Franco.
The game looked like it might be a struggle early as the Rams matched Tyrone punch for punch. Tyrone went 86 yards on its first drive, picking up big chunks on 17- and 14-yard runs by Hoover before the senior halfback capped the drive with a 2-yard run to make it 7-0.
Valley came back with an 11-play drive that went 61 yards sparked by Fletcher Ironside, who had 3 receptions for 42 yards. Miller got the Rams on the board with a 1-yard run, but Woomer blocked the PAT to keep the Eagles ahead 7-6.
It took only 4 plays for Tyrone to get the score back on a 61-yard run by Hoover.
Valley then tied the game seven seconds into the second quarter on a 31-yard pass from MIller to Richard Wasson that was followed by a conversion pass to Ironside.
The Golden Eagles would score five unanswered touchdowns over the next 11:44 to go build its big halftime lead. Walk started it with a 10-yard run to end a 55-yard drive.
Walk then had a pair of long touchdown passes to his top two targets, going first to Woomer on an out route for a 57-yard touchdown that made it 27-14.
He followed that up with this 58-yard bomb to Adams.
Gayge Miller was Walk’s next target. After scrambling and reversing his field, Walk found him in the front corner of the endzone with 2:02 left in the half to make it 41-14.
After the Rams were forced to punt on their next possession, Tyrone went 59 yards in just three plays, aided by three completions by Walk and a personal foul penalty to go on top 48-14 on a 25-yard reception by Woomer.
Valley got its lone stop of a Tyrone advance early in the fourth quarter when Hoover was dropped for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the Eagles’ 43, and followed it up with a 6-yard touchdown run by Chase Shelley to cut the lead to 48-20, but that would be the last time a Tyrone drive would end without a score until the Eagles took a knee to close the game.
When they got the ball back, the Golden Eagles marched 80 yards on 6 plays and went up 55-20 on a short run by Hoover.
The win pushed Tyrone above .500 at 5-4 for the first time this season and set up a matchup with Chestnut Ridge next week in Fishertown in an LHAC crossover game.
The Rams fell to 0-9 on their Senior Night.
NOTES: Tyrone has scored 206 points in its last four games, an average of 51.5 per game … Owen Oakes played his first game since dislocating his ankle in Week 2 against Greater Johnstown … Tyrone won the turnover battle for the third straight week with 3 takeaways and no turnovers.
Tyrone 14 34 28 7 — 82
Penns Valley 6 8 12 0 — 26
First Quarter
T – Hoover 2 run (Novak kick) 8:25
P – Miller 1 run (PAT failed) 2:27
T – Hoover 61 run (Novak kick) 1:16
Second Quarter
P – Wasson 31 pass from Miller (Miller pass to Ironside) 11:53
T – Walk 10 run (PAT failed) 10:08
T – Woomer 58 pass from Walk (Novak kick) 7:35
T – Adams 57 pass from Walk (Novak kick) 3:59
T – Miller 27 pass from Walk (Novak kick) 2:02
T – Woomer 25 pass from Walk (Novak kick) :25
Third Quarter
P – Shelley 6 run (PAT failed) 9:01
T – Hoover 3 run (Novak kick) 7:03
T – K. Sahoney 45 interception return (Novak kick) 6:22
P – Shawver 40 run (PAT failed) 3:00
T – Whitby 95 kick return (Novak kick) 2:44
T – Hockenberry 55 fumble return (Novak kick)
Fourth Quarter
T – I. Sahoney 23 run (Novak kick) 8:25
TEAM STATISTICS T P
First downs 27 10
Total yards 623 280
Rushes-yards 23-273 27-143
Yards passing 350 136
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 17-20-0 12-26-1
Punts-avg. 0-0 4-20.8
Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-2
Penalties-yards 12-83 6-69
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Tyrone: Hoover 17-196, Walk 1-10, Whitby 1-15, I. Sahoney 1-54, Zupon 1-3, Tea, 2-(-2). Penns Valley: Ironside 2-27, Shelley 7-34, Shawver 12-80, Miler 2-(-5), Ripka 4-7.
PASSING—Tyrone: Walk 17-20-350, 5 TDs, 0 Ints. Penns Valley Miller 12-26-136, 1 TD, 1 Int.
RECEIVING—Tyrone: Hoover 2-20, Woomer 5-148, Adams 4-106, Emigh 2-23, Miller 3-41, Weston 1-7. Penns Valley: Ironside 7-91, Wasson 1-31, Shelley 1-3, Shawver 1-1, Fetterolf 1-4, Althouse 1-6.
ORANGE AND BLACK 
*Kyler Suhoney
*Isaiah Suhoney
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