In a game where 22 people are on the field at all times, it’s not easy for one player to take over a game like football.
In basketball, where that number is cut by more than half, you see it a lot. But football is a different animal.
That’s why games like the one Ashton Emigh had last night are special because in the second half against Bald Eagle Area, he was a monster, and he refused to let the Golden Eagles lose when nothing seemed to be going right.
Emigh had a lot of help, to be sure, but there’s no denying his plays were impactful.
Not only did Emigh score what became the deciding touchdown and lock up what was all but a deal-breaking sack with time winding down, but he did the little things, namely, power the ball for hard-nosed first downs when all Tyrone really needed was to run the clock and move the chains.
Beyond that, Emigh helped lead a defensive charge that stood tall in the critical moments of the Golden Eagles’ 21-14 win at Alumni Stadium in Wingate.
Emigh knocked down two passes and recorded a pair of sacks in a win that bumped Tyrone’s record to 3-1 heading into next week’s Backyard Brawl against Bellwood-Antis at Gray-Veterans Memorial Field, and his play was emblematic of a defensive unit that has risen to the occasion with the game on the line over the last two weeks.
Our defense is the foundation of our team … our defense knows they have to keep us in the game, and they’ve done a fantastic job, especially the last two weeks.
John Franco
“We knew going into this year we needed to rely on our defense, especially early,” said Tyrone coach John Franco. “Our defense is the foundation of our team. Last year it was our offense, but our defense knows they have to keep us in the game, and they’ve done a fantastic job, especially the last two weeks.”
In a game that teetered in the balance until the very end, Emigh’s sack of Bald Eagle quarterback Kaleb Irion with under a minute to play was big. It came on the heels of a sack by another Tyrone defender who had a statement game, junior Kyler Suhoney.
Suhoney came free off the edge to drop Gradyn Fisher and force him into an intentional grounding call. The flag was thrown, the call was made, but somewhere in the exchange the officials never marked off the distance of the penalty or take away the down.
Emigh made that a moot point on the next play, when he got to Irion for an 8-yard loss that put BEA way behind the sticks with less than 30 seconds to play.
One play later, Caleb Whitby registered Tyrone’s fourth interception to seal the win.
It was a stout defensive performance that the Golden Eagles needed every bit of because their offense struggled to move the ball most of the game against a BEA defense geared to limit Tyrone’s running attack. The Golden Eagles rushed for only 78 yards, breaking a play longer than 10 yards only once, but in the second half, when they needed to to muscle for difficult yards, they went to Emigh, and he delivered.
On Tyrone’s final series, which lasted 10 plays and chewed up more than four minutes, Emigh carried 5 times, bruising his way to a pair of time-consuming first downs, including one for 2 yards on fourth-and-1 from the Golden Eagles’ 49.
“These are the rivals you’ve been playing for years and years, and you know you’re going to be in for a tough game,” Franco said. “I think that’s important to us, to find out how to win the tough games.”
As a group, Tyrone’s defense stopped 6 plays behind the line of scrimmage and forced Bald Eagle into alternative options for running the football after stuffing its inside running game. By the end of the first quarter, BEA had inserted Fisher in place of Irion to utilize him as a running quarterback. His quickness and elusiveness put the Bald Eagles in position to score several times, but BEA was never able to fully overcome the 14-0 deficit it dug for itself in the first nine minutes of the game.
It was Brayden Parsons who got things rolling for Tyrone with an 80-yard touchdown reception from Eli Woomer off a play-action bootleg pass with 6:39 left in the first quarter.
The touchdown was Parsons’ second touchdown in the last two weeks after returning an interception for a score against Central in Week 3.
But the one that really hurt came from Suhoney just three minutes later.
On an attempted screen, Suhoney batted the ball into the air before picking it off and returning it 45 yards for a touchdown that gave Tyrone a two-touchdown cushion.
BEA would chase that score the rest of the night.
“They did a good job of pinching in and taking away our counter game,” said Nagle, whose team dipped to 1-3. “The bad thing is their two best kids are probably at the corners. All the turnovers hurt. We blew a coverage early, and after that we shut them down. And they’re a very potent offense. We’ve just got to make those plays.”
BEA began to get things rolling with Fisher calling plays on its next series, but that one ended in a missed field goal. However, on Tyrone’s first play after the miss, Woomer threw an interception to Jackson Millward, setting up Bald Eagle at Tyrone’s 29.
The Bald Eagles got straight to work, and on their first play used a double pass from Irion to Fisher to Millward to get on the board with 9:26 left in the second quarter.
The game stayed 14-7 until halftime, but BEA had some momentum and was set to receive the kick to start the third quarter. But on the first play of the second half, Owen Oakes snagged a pass from Irion at the Bald Eagle 28.
From there, it took Tyrone 5 plays to punch it in, including a 13-yard pass to Parsons, who made a diving grab to get the ball to the 1. On the next play, Emigh bounced through traffic to give the Eagles back their two-touchdown advantage.
BEA answered with its best sustained drive of the night, pushing ahead on a 64-yard advance that lasted 14 plays. Along the way, Fisher completed 8 of 9 passes, converting on one third down and one fourth down on a 14-yard hookup with James Cowan.
Cowan then capped the series with a 6-yard grab on a pop pass from Fisher that made it 21-14.
Tyrone had a couple chances to drain the clock and score a dagger in the fourth, but their first possession ended in a punt and their second halted at BEA’s 23 after Whitby fumbled a handoff.
Each time it put the game back in the hands of the Golden Eagles’ defense, and the unit was up to the challenge.
“We made the plays when we had to,” Franco said. “Jason (Wilson) has done a fantastic job with the defense, and all of our defensive coaches have the kids prepared.”
Tyrone stopped one drive on downs before forcing a punt to set the stage for its final defensive stand.
The Golden Eagles limited BEA to 222 total yards, although they could never quite figure out Fisher, who had a hand in 202 of them. But the real concern for Franco afterwards was establishing a better rhythm on offense heading into its toughest stretch of games this season. While failing to assert its running game, Tyrone also turned the ball over twice and converted only 8 first downs.
“We do some really good things on offense, and then we don’t move the ball,” he said. “We’re looking for that consistency, and of course, we’re going to have a heck of a two-game stretch to get it.”
After playing B-A next week, Tyrone travels to Bishop Guilfoyle the following Saturday.
NOTES: Parsons had two catches for 93 yards … Oakes’ interception was his second in as many games … after running for 27 yards in the first half, BEA leading rusher Nick McCulley didn’t have an attempt in the second half … the win was Tyrone’s second in a row over BEA. The Golden Eagles now lead the series with 38 wins and 19 losses.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Visitor 14 0 7 0 — 21
Home 0 7 7 0 — 14
First Quarter
T—Parsons 80 pass from Woomer (Novak kick) 6:39
T – Suhoney 45 interception return (Novak kick) 3:53
Second Quarter
B – Millward 29 pass from Fisher (Millward kick) 9:26
Third Quarter
T – Emigh 1 run (Novak kick) 9:37
B – Cowan 6 pass from Fisher (Millward kick) 1:53
TEAM STATISTICS T B
First downs 8 10
Total yards 212 222
Rushes-yards 26-78 32-107
Yards passing 134 115
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 7-17-2 12-27-4
Punts-avg. 4-18.8 2-42.5
Fumbles-lost 1-1 2-0
Penalties-yards 3-35 0-0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Tyrone Woomer 10-33, Whitby 7-25, Emigh 9-20. Bald Eagle Area Fisher 18-91, Iron 4-(-11), McCulley 10-27.
PASSING—Tyrone Woomer 7-17-134, 1 TD, 2 Int. Bald Eagle Area Iron 2-10-30, 2 Ints. Fisher 10-17-85, 2 TD.
RECEIVING—Tyrone Parsons 2-93, Martin 2-15, Emigh 1-19, Whitby 1-8 Bonsell 1-(-1). Bald Eagle Area Cowan 4-38, Hosband 3-11, Millward 3-41, Fisher 1-26, Johnson 1 (-1).
ORANGE AND BLACK 