Eagles steal three seed with win over Ridge
Tyrone was a football team that looked like it was dead in the water just four weeks ago.
The Eagles were humbled in back-to-back losses to Bellwood-Antis and Bishop Guilfoyle, outscored by a combined 42-7 to fall to 3-3. Where the District 6 3A playoffs were concerned, Tyrone was on the outside looking in, and if by some miracle they were to get in, what were they expecting? An offense that had looked promising during a 3-1 start was flatlining, and the defense was getting pushed around.
But there was one glimmer of hope: Tyrone played three of the four teams ahead of it in October.
After closing out its October slate last night at Gray-Veterans Memorial Field with a 28-13 win over Chestnut Ridge, those dreary weekends in September were a distant memory, and Tyrone hadn’t just qualified for the postseason but leapfrogged into the No. 3 position.
The Eagles finished the month 3-1, losing only to top-seeded Penn Cambria. Their 28-7 win over Philipsburg-Osceola last week had solidified at least the fourth position, but their victory over the Lions, combined with Bellwood-Antis’s 45-27 win over Forest Hills, allowed Tyrone to jump ahead of the Rangers.
That means next week Tyrone will be paired with No. 2 Huntingdon in the 3A semifinals, a team the Eagles best four weeks ago 41-21.
While the grind of the Laurel Highlands schedule has worn on almost every team involved, the Week 10 crossover games, pitting teams from the East Division against teams of similar records from the West, have been a godsend for Tyrone the last two seasons. Both times the Eagles have played Chest Ridge, and both times wins in the final week of the regular season have been enough to move Tyrone up in the playoff standings.
Against the Lions this year, a game played on Senior Night, it was again big plays that directed the flow of the game for the Eagles.
And few turned in bigger plays with more frequency than Eli Woomer.
The senior quarterback completed 8 of 15 passes for 118 yards and a touchdown, ran for 36 yards, caught a pair of passes for 38 yards, and returned an interception in the third quarter for a touchdown that sapped much of the life out of the Lions, who at 4-6 will begin the District 5 2A playoffs next week.
“I was putting everything into this game,” Woomer said. “There’s nothing like winning your last home game, in front of your home crowd, and possibly moving up in the playoffs.”
Woomer’s classmate Brayden Parsons had a game, as well, pulling in 3 receptions for 72 yards and a touchdown, including two big ones on a last-minute drive in the first half that put Tyrone up by two scores.
Junior Mason Emigh continued to make plays in the passing game, as well, with 3 catches for 44 yards and two touchdowns.
INSTANT OFFENSE
Junior Ben Walk has come off the bench the last three games to throw for 274 yards and three touchdowns. He had two touchdown passes in the first half against Chestnut Ridge.
For the third straight game, Tyrone employed dual quarterbacks, and with Woomer lined up as a receiver junior Ben Walk completed 6 of 12cpasses for 110 yards and two touchdowns.
While the Eagles offense was thriving off big plays, their defense was limiting one of the best running offenses it had faced well below its typical output. Chestnut Ridge entered the game averaging 174 yards per game on the ground, but Tyrone held the Lions to 105 yards on 26 carries and, outside of three long runs, held their triple option attack in check.
“We knew the toughest thing about this game would be stopping their inside run, which I thought we did a good job of,” said Tyrone coach John Franco. “That was more crucial than anything. The second thing was we thought it would be tough to run against them. Their front six was excellent against the run, but we thought we could throw on them. And I thought we did that very capably.”
Ridge smothered the Eagles’ running attack most of the night, holding Tyrone to just 81 yards on the ground. But it was through the air where the Eagles did most of their damage, starting on their second series.
Starting at midfield, Tyrone covered 50 yards in four plays, including this 24-yard pickup on third-and-7 by Marshall Martin, who took in a pass shuffled to him by Woomer as the quarterback was being pressured.
That moved the Eagles to the Lions’ 23, and on the next play Woomer laced this pass into a tight window as Emigh cut on a slant route. The result was an early 7-0 lead after the first of 4 PAT kicks by Tytus Novak.
Tyrone had some chances to take a bigger lead early but failed to convert. Ridge fumbled on the ensuing kickoff, and after Caden Harris recovered the Eagles advanced as far as the Lions’ 3, but they were turned away on downs against a defense that wasn’t budging against the run.
Ridge would get on the board in the second quarter, taking advantage of the first of two interceptions thrown by Woomer. Wyatt Deshong got the pick to set up the Lions at Tyrone’s 27, and after a play that went for negative yards on first down, Jayden Imler found daylight on a slick misdirection draw and went 28 yards to even the score with 7:14 left until halftime.
Tyrone began its next series at its own 26 with just over seven minutes left in the half, and overcame two third-and-long situations to regain the lead. On the first, a holding penalty had the Eagles facing third-and-21 from their own 32 when Woomer stepped up in the pocket to find Parsons for a 35-yard gain to the Ridge 33.
Woomer was sacked for a 7-yard loss on the next play and left the game briefly, and one play after that the shotgun snap to Walk skidded on the ground forcing Walk to cover it up for another loss of 7.
That made it third-and-24, and it set up this 47-yard touchdown pass to Parsons, who slipped free off his route into the deep flat.
By then, there were three minutes left in the half, and after Tyrone held off a Lions advance that went as deep as their 30, the Golden Eagles got the ball back with 1:17 until halftime.
Walk directed the entire drive, and his longest completion went to Woomer, who took a pass over the middle, broke tackles, and battled for 28 yards to 26. A facemask penalty moved the ball to the 21.
Four plays later, Walk fired a strike to Emigh in the front corner of the endzone for a 9-yard touchdown that made it 21-7 with 5.9 seconds left.
The Eagles couldn’t make good on a fumble recovery in Ridge territory by John Stanton early in the second half, but Novak’s punt pinned the Lions inside their 20.
Three plays after Ridge got the ball back, Woomer turned in a backbreaker of a turnover, returning a pick of Landyn Pinicin 24 yards for a touchdown.
It was Tyrone’s 20th interception of the season, and Woomer’s fifth in the last three games. It also marked the second straight game Tyrone’s defense returned an interception for a score.
“As soon as I caught it, I knew no one was going to be over there,” Woomer said. “I knew I had green grass in front of me. I just had to beat two or three linemen down the sideline.”
Franco had heavy praise for his Woomer, who also went over 1,300 passing yards for the season.
“He was banged up pretty good, but he refused to come out. He makes play after play after play,” Franco said. “People don’t even realize it. What a play that interception was. It’s such a hard play to make when you get an interception when going in the opposite direction, and he did it like there was nothing to it. He was not going to let us lose this game.”
From there, the second half turned into an exercise of running out the clock for the Eagles. The Lions got a score back before the third quarter ended on a 4-yard run by Pincin following Woomer’s second pick, but they threatened just one more time, moving as deep as Tyrone’s 29 in the fourth quarter before being turned away on downs.
In all, the Lions turned the ball over three times and were penalized 7 times for 75 yards, and those were heavy factors in the game, Coach Max Shoemaker said.
“We didn’t cash in several (opportunities) and we threw ourselves off schedule with senseless penalties and mistakes, and it came back to bite us in the end,” said Shoemaker. “But our kids played tough. There wasn’t any quit, and we can build off that heading into the playoffs.”
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Chestnut Ridge 0 7 6 0 – 13
Tyrone 7 14 7 0 – 28
First Quarter
T—Emigh 23 pass from Woomer (Novak kick) 5:05
Second Quarter
C – Imler 28 run (Howsare kick) 7:14
T—Parsons 47 pass from Walk (Novak kick) 3:00
T – M. Emigh 6 pass from Walk (Novak kick) :05.9
Third Quarter
T—Woomer 24 interception return (Novak kick) 8:25
C – Pincin 4 run (PAT kick blocked) 1:49
TEAM STATISTICS C T
First downs 10 13
Total yards 216 312
Rushes-yards 26-105 31-81
Yards passing 111 238
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 9-25-1 13-26-3
Punts-avg. 3-34.6 4-28
Fumbles-lost 4-2 1-0
Penalties-yards 7-75 5-60
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Chestnut Ridge Imler 12-75, Pincin 10-35, Barefoot 1-3, Hillegass 1-3, Team 2-(-9). Tyrone Whitby 8-16, Woomer 11-36, A. Emigh 12-29.
PASSING—Chestnut Ridge Pincin 9-25-111, 0 TD, 1 Int. Tyrone Woomer 8-15-118, 1 TD, 2 Ints.; Walk 6-12-110, 2 TDs, 1 Int.
RECEIVING—Chestnut Ridge Imler 1-7, Weyandt 1-7, Barefoot 2-38, Weaver 1-14, Emerick 3-21, Hillegass 1-26. Tyrone Woomer 2-38, Parsons 4-107, M. Emigh 3-44, Whitby 1-(-2), Robinson 3-16, Martin 1-24.
ORANGE AND BLACK 