Tyrone’s football team suffered its first loss Friday, dropping a thriller in overtime to Central at Gray-Veterans memorial Field. The Eagles fell behind twice but rallied to send the game into overtime on a touchdown by Reid Starr in the fourth quarter.
It was the first loss of the season for Tyrone, which now will play an important game against Bald Eagle Area at home this Friday as it begins its battle to qualify for the District 6 3A playoffs.
Here are four takeaways from Friday’s game.
First Down: Mistakes
Tyrone coach Jason Jones took the Golden Eagles’ first loss in stride, noting pragmatically that every team is going to lose a game sometime. He also refused to point to any single mistake as being fatal. Instead, he talked about the need to get better offensively, in general.
But there were plenty of mistakes, and all are fixable.
Those that stood out most were drops. Tyrone receivers had five crucial dropped passes that shortened or ended drives, one of which that was intercepted off a tip to thwart a series that had reached the Dragons’ 20.
Through three games, it’s clear teams who face Tyrone do so making limiting the touches of leading receiver Mason Emigh a top priority. Against the Dragons, for example, he was shadowed and blanketed by Jesse Muthler every play. He still managed to corral three passes for 47 yards and a touchdown, but the attention he receives means other wideouts are going to get opportunities, and if Tyrone is going to win this season, they’re going to have to take advantage of them.
But the Eagles’ miscues went beyond dropped passes. There were also missed blocking assignments that led to Ben Walking being dropped in the backfield twice, including a sack in overtime that set Tyrone back from the 10 to the 21.
Penalties didn’t help either, and a holding call on a 16-yard completion to Caleb Whitby that got the ball to the 4 in the third quarter may have been the toughest one. The Eagles went from first-and-goal inside the 5 to fourth-and-20 from the 30, and the interception that ensued paved the way for the Dragons’ go-ahead drive.
Tyrone has some issues to deal with this season. They’re undersized at a lot of positions and inexperienced on the offensive line, and only time can remedy those concerns. But the biggest problems that emerged from the Central game are ones that can be fixed, which is why the loss isn’t fatal and instead, like Jones said afterwards, something to respond to and grow from.
Second Down: Cutbacks
A big question facing the Eagles prior to last Friday was how good their defense actually was. It had given up single touchdowns in its first two games against Bellefonte and Westmont Hilltop, but how would it handle an offense that was truly dynamic?
As it turns out, the defense is pretty good, and more than anything it has tons of grit. Against Central, Tyrone bent but didn’t break and found ways to turn away promising drives with sure tackling and strong play from its secondary.
But if there was one crack in the works Central was able to take advantage of it was in finding cutback lanes. Running back Semaj Musei was particularly good in that area, and his 22-yard run in the third quarter, which jumpstarted a 90-yard touchdown drive, was just one example.
The Eagles are aggressive, and in many cases that was a good thing against the Dragons. Their blitzing of Muthler at quarterback, for example, caused a number of errant passes. But there were also occasions, like the Musei run, where defenders got caught up and lost in the mix pursuing to the inside, which allowed for big cutback lanes.
It happened again twice more on the same drive with Muthler’s 14-yard scramble on fourth down, when he was pinned on the sideline but cut back for a key first down, and later when Carter Schenk cut back for this 16-yard pick-up to the 4.
Cutbacks were even a problem on special teams, where JJ Moushlian went against the grain twice for big pickups on kicks and punts.
At the end of the day, even Central coach Jerry Albright said Tyrone’s defense was as good as advertised, but defending cutbacks against aggressive play will be an area to look at as the season progresses.
Third Down: Breakout Performance
Coach Jones wasn’t keeping any secrets before the Eagles faced Central Friday, saying in the lead up the plan was to get more involvement from receiver Jon Stroup and sophomore running back Reid Starr. True to the plan, Walk targeted Stroup 5 times for 2 receptions, and Starr had the game of his young career, accounting for 58 yards and a touchdown on 10 touches.
On the Eagles’ drive to tie the game at 14 in the fourth quarter, Starr caught two passes for 20 yards, and both were huge, with one converting a third-and-5 and the other converting on fourth-and-2. He later capped the drive with a 5-yard run for a score where he broke tackles and powered into the endzone.
Defensively, Starr thwarted one Central drive with an interception and even had a tackle for loss from his linebacker position.
Starr had all the appearance of a young player beginning to feel confident in his spots on the field, and as Jones continues to expand the offense each week performances like Friday’s will become much more common. More importantly, it provides the Golden Eagles with options outside of Caleb Whitby and Mason Emigh, and anything that can free up the team’s top two playmakers is a huge benefit.
Fourth Down: Snakebitten
No team has had Tyrone’s number over the last 15 years quite like Central.
Before 2012, the Eagles had more or less owned the Dragons, winning 13 of 14 games from 1994 through 2011.
All that changed with Central’s 20-0 win in 2012, and since then the Dragons have won 12 of 14, including three victories in the District 6 playoffs.
Central has had some excellent teams during that time, including six that won District titles, but that doesn’t do much to lessen the sting of the dominance the Dragons have held over Tyrone over a time frame the covers four presidential elections and three presidents.
Beyond Tyrone’s struggles against Central are the Eagles historic difficulties winning in overtime. The PIAA first instituted a system of overtime in 1995, and Tyrone’s first game with an extra frame occurred in the state playoffs against Sharon in 2000. The Eagles lost that one 21-14 and the wouldn’t play another overtime game until 2005 in the District semifinals against Bishop McCort.
The Crushers would win that one 23-20, and MIfflin County would take the Eagles’ next overtime game in 2011, 27-21.
Tyrone finally got a win in overtime when it defeated Huntingdon 48-42 in 2016, but dropped its next two to Bellwood-Antis in 2017 and 2019.
The Eagles most recent overtime game before Friday was in 2024, when they defeated Bald Eagle Area 35-28.
In all, Tyrone is 2-6 in extra time.
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