Late flurry secures win over Central

The Tyrone Golden Eagles had seen this scenario play out before.

Fourth quarter. Up two scores. Needing only one sustained drive to close things out after mounting sustained drives time after time.

If the Eagles were feeling deja vu in the second half Friday in Roaring Spring against Central, it would be hard to blame them. It was almost the exact set of events that played out two weeks ago in Bellefonte. Then, Tyrone led 20-7 in the fourth quarter but couldn’t hold off a late rally and lost 21-20.

Against the Dragons, a 14-0 halftime lead had slimmed to 14-6 with under four minutes to play.

And like their game against the Raiders, the Eagles needed to recover an onsides kick.

It didn’t go so well in Centre County, when Tyrone was caught off guard by a kick straight from the special teams huddle, but the hands team was ready against Central. Against a nearly identical play, Ashton Emigh was able to corral the loose ball, setting up a fast-paced finish that saw the Eagles score twice in the final minute-and-a-half to win a Laurel highlands East Division I game 28-6.

We had an opportunity to fix what we made big mistakes on two weeks ago. It was the exact same situation. The result is we got it this time and they didn’t.
Eli Woomer

If nothing else, it showed Tyrone had learned a thing or two about finishing games that wasn’t quite there yet in Week 1.

“We had an opportunity to fix what we made big mistakes on two weeks ago,” said quarterback Eli Woomer. “We persevered. It was the exact same situation. The result is we got it this time and they didn’t.”

For Tyrone coach John Franco, the game provided the kind of adversity that was missing in last week’s blowout win over Westmont Hilltop, and he was pleased with the strides it had made in that area.

“We almost handed it to them in the second half, and I was like, ‘Okay, let’s see,’” Franco said. “We talk about resiliency. In the locker room, I said, ‘They’re going to make some plays, and we’ve got to pick ourselves up and go to the next play. Of course, they made that long run there, and all of a sudden it’s 14-6. Our guys came together, and I said, ‘Guys,’ They said, ‘You’re right, Coach. This is it. We’re not going to falter now. We’re going to get this going.’ Sure enough, they did.”

Following the recovery, Caleb Whitby scored his second touchdown of the night on a 45-yard screen pass, and Brayden Parsons closed it out with a 35-yard interception return for a score.

Parson’s pick was his second of the night and one of 5 thrown by Central quarterbacks. The Dragons also lost a third-quarter fumble in a collapse Coach Gerald Albright didn’t see coming.

“We knew going in we were very young this season. We were going to have some flaws,” said Albright. “We didn’t think they would ever be that extreme. Five interceptions. Never thought we would have that. We’re more of a controlled passing game. We don’t go deep that often. We’ve got to do better.”

The win hiked Tyrone’s record to 2-1 while the Dragons fell to 0-2.

Tyrone dealt with turnover issues of its own, handing the ball back to Central twice on interceptions following second-half takeaways. Those put the brakes on an offensive assault that had piled up 199 yards in the first half and made controlling the ball and running the clock almost impossible in the third and fourth quarters.

“We definitely have a tendency to turn it on and turn it off, especially coming out of the half,” said Woomer, who completed 10 of 19 passes for 174 yards and a pair of touchdowns. “Starting the game, we’ve been on fire. Out of the half, we’ve looked sloppy. But we’ll definitely fix that next week.”

Tyrone looked sharp on all three of its first-half possessions against the Dragons, but it was the second one that produced the game’s first points. It began after the first of Mason Emigh’s two interceptions set up the Eagles at Central’s 20.

That got the ball rolling for Tyrone, which found itself facing third-and-5 on the ensuing drive. From his own 25, Woomer hit Parsons on a short pass, and Parsons cut through Central’s secondary on this 51-yard play that moved the ball to the 24.

Two plays later, Woomer had a 17-yard touchdown run negated by a holding penalty, but a pair of runs by Whitby got the ball in the endzone. On the decisive play, the junior crashed through a tackle near the goal line for his fourth touchdown run of the season.

The Dragons answered with a 10-play drive that went from its own 20 to Tyrone’s 19, but on fourth-and-5 Jesse Muthler’s pass to the endzone went incomplete, giving Tyrone the ball back with 6:07 until halftime.

The Eagles took control with their running game, with Whitby carrying 6 times for 43 yards to get in scoring distance. A 19-yard sprint put the ball on Central’s 39, and two plays later he broke free for 11 to the 17.

A holding penalty ultimately had Tyrone working from the 25 when Woomer hit Mason Emigh in the front of the endzone on a crossing route with 50 seconds left to get the lead to 14-0 at halftime.

It was the last time Tyrone’s offense would look that good until well into the fourth quarter, and a big reason for that was a shift Albright said his team made to limit the Eagles’ running attack.

After rushing 82 yards in the first half, Tyrone managed just 15 in the second, and that stunted the balanced look that had kept the chains moving early on.

“Our defense was tremendous in the second half,” said Albright. “We practiced an alternate defense we thought we’d play in some third down situations. We ended up able to stop the run a lot better in that defense.”

But even without much going on on offense in the third and fourth quarters, Tyrone’s defense had things under control. Four Dragons possessions in the third yielded Parson’s first interception, a fumble recovery by Emigh, and a pair of punts. The fourth started in much the same way, with Emigh intercepting backup quarterback Carter Schenk, who had come on after Muther left the game with an injury.

But Tyrone was never able to turn those opportunities into points or long drives, and Central finally broke through thanks to a long pass-and-run play from Schenk to JJ Moushlian on fourth down that moved the Dragons from their own 35 to Tyrone’s 17.

Two plays later, Schenk broke tackles and scored with 3:43 remaining to cut the lead down to 8.

Unlike two weeks ago against Bellefonte, Tyrone’s special teams were ready for the quick onsides kick attempt, and after the recovery the Eagles were finally able to break through Central’s defense when Woomer hooked up with Whitby on a screen pass that went 45 yards for a score with 1:32 left to make it 21-6.

On the Dragons’ ensuing drive, Schenk went deep down the sideline but was picked off by Parsons, who returned it 35 yards for his second touchdown in as many weeks.

It wasn’t easy, but it was the kind of game Franco thought his team needed, and he was pleased his players responded as they did when things got tight.

“We needed this test, this mental toughness test,” Franco said. “I thought that was really important.”

Tyrone will continue divisional play next week when it travels to Wingate to play Bald Eagle Area, which picked up its first win of the season Friday by topping Penns Valley 21-0.

Central, meanwhile, will travel to Bellwood-Antis.