Bishop Guilfoyle coach Justin Wheeler has a lot of faith in his defense. It’s one of the reasons he frequently eschews fourth-down tries in favor of punts when in plus territory, those all-or-nothing plays coaches are more and more comfortable making in the 2020s.
It makes sense when you consider the caliber of run stoppers and pass rushers he’s working with.
The Marauders’ defensive stars reinforced their coach’s belief with their performance against Tyrone on Saturday night at Mansion Park in a 26-0 whitewashing of the Golden Eagles. BG stopped nine plays at or behind the line of scrimmage, forced an interception, and dropped another play in the endzone for a safety in their most dominating defensive performance of the season.
It was the second straight loss for the Golden Eagles, who dipped to 3-3.
Linebacker Jake Kissell and defensive end defensive end Rocco Cacciotti were at the center of the action for BG’s swarming defense, accounting for 6 tackles for loss as well as the safety, which occurred when Cacciotti rushed through and pancaked Caleb Whitby four years deep in the endzone after he had taken in a swing pass from Eli Woomer.
“Our defense has been playing so well,” Wheeler said after watching his team improve to 5-1. “I’m a defensive guy and if you can force teams to take long fields, we feel like we give ourselves a chance to make stops. When you’re up two scores or three scores, you play field position, and let our defense do things. We re a disciplined defense, and Rocco Cacciotti, every week, makes big plays.”
Cacciotti’s safety, while only increasing the score to 12-0 in the third quarter, was a backbreaker because Tyrone was finding it difficult to move the football. Until their final drive of the night, the Eagles were held to fewer than 100 yards in total offense and had only one play go for more than 15 yards. The Marauders forced the Eagles into a pair of three-and-out drives and two others ended after just four plays, one on downs and the other on an interception.
“I thought our defense played really well,” said Tyrone coach John Franco. “I thought our offense stunk up the joint. It’s a shame we wasted a really good defensive effort. We couldn’t get field position, and we’d keep giving them the ball at midfield. We didn’t block anybody and weren’t able to run the ball. We were limited to a one-dimensional offense.”
Franco’s observation is a solid one. Against a team averaging 30 points per game, Tyrone was deadlocked in a scoreless battle most of the first half. The Eagles forced a pair of punts in the first half and stuffed one fourth-and-1 try, but the Marauders’ willingness to lay up with punts and play field position eventually took its toll.
Four minutes into the second quarter, Kyler Suhoney stopped BG quarterback Justin Wheeler for a 5-yard loss on third-and-1, forcing a punt from the 39. Kicker Carter Boland planted his kick at the 15, and despite a 15-yard reception by Whitby, Tyrone’s ensuing drive stalled, forcing a punt.
Tytus Novak’s kick went 32 yards, but the return brought it back to Tyrone’s 47, and on first down Wheeler found Evan Schimminger for a 32-yard gain to the 15, the Marauders’ biggest play of the half.
Two plays later Wheeler tossed a lateral to Jack Gioiosa, who went 10 yards for the game’s first score with 4:18 left in the half.
Although the Eagles couldn’t answer with a score of their own, they did stop BG on its next possession but ultimately punted from their own 22. A 14-yard return put the ball on Tyrone’s 42 with 13 seconds left and on the second play after the ball changed hands the Eagles were flagged for pass interference on a Hail Mary throw to the end zone, giving the Marauders an extra 15 and one untimed down.
That brought on Boland, who calmy drilled a 41-yard field goal to make it 10-0 at halftime.
“All we needed was one first down, and we couldn’t get that,” Franco said. “We couldn’t run the ball.”
Coach Wheeler said as long as his team was across midfield, they were confident giving Boland a shot.
“Carter Boland is one of the best kickers in the state. There’s no doubt about it,” Coach Wheeler said. “We knew 50 and in we were going to have a shot. The momentum with that, the other team was down. I thought that was huge.”
Tyrone’s offense continued to sputter in the second half while the defense stood tall. Suhoney ended another drive on down with by stopping Kissell for a 1-yard loss on fourth-and-6 from the Eagles’ 38 and they followed that up by forcing another punt.
This one Boland perfectly placed inside the 5, setting up Tyrone at their own 4. That was when Cacciotti made his big play for the safety. BG then scored one a 6-play, 57-yard drive following the free kick when Kissell popped a jump pass to Connor Okonak from the 3 to make it 19-0 with 10:58 left in the fourth quarter.
Guilfoyle would add one more score midway through the fourth after Gioiosa intercepted Woomer to end a drive that had moved 25 yards to the Marauders’ 47. The two big plays were a 35-yard reception by Tyson Lestochi and a 34-yard run by Keagan Hewitt, who capped the drive with a 1-yard plunge.
The Marauders travel to Bellwood-Antis this week on the Blue Devils’ homecoming while Tyrone begins a difficult back end of its schedule at home against Huntingdon, which is 5-1 and currently leading the District 6 3A standings.
“We still have an opportunity to make the playoffs,” said Franco. “Our schedule is brutal, but it is what it is. We just have to make the plays. We have to get back the work and fix the mistakes. No excuses.”
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Tyrone 0 0 0 0 – 0
Bishop Guilfoyle 0 10 2 14 – 26
SCORING SUMMARY
Second Quarter
B – Gioiosa 10 pass from 10 pass from Wheeler (Boland kick) 4:18
B – Boland 41 field goal :00
Third Quarter
B – Safety :57
Fourth Quarter
B – Okonak 3 pass from Kissell (Boland kick) 10:58
B – Hewitt 1 run (Boland kick) 6:54
TEAM STATISTICS
T BG
First Downs 8 17
Rushes/Yards 18-47 40-238
Pass Att-Comp-Int 7-19-1 12-16-0
Passing Yards 64 118
Total Yards 111 356
Penalties/Yds 3-24 5-50
Punts/Avg 6-35.1 3-31.3
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Tyrone Emigh 2-3, Whitby 4-4, Woomer 4-(-3), Starr 7-51, Zupon 1-(-8); Bishop Guilfoyle Wheeler 6-31, Lawson 1-4, Kissell 20-116, Hewitt 11-60, Schimminger 2-27.
Passing
Tyrone Woomer 7-18-64, 0 TDs, 1 Int., Zupon 0-1-0; Bishop Guilfoyle Wheeler 7-9-67, 1 TD, 0 Int,; Kissell 5-7-51, 1 TD, 0 Int.
Receiving
Tyrone M. Emigh 3-44, Whitby 2-11, Walk 1-4, Robinson 1-5; Bishop Guilfoyle Lestochi 3-43, Kissell 3-15, Schimminger 1-7, Gioiosa 3-50, Okonak 1-3.
ORANGE AND BLACK 