Tyrone suffered a 44-14 setback against Bishop Guilfoyle Friday at Gray-Veterans Memorial Field, its second straight lopsided loss.
The game was up for grabs all the way to the end of the third quarter before the Marauders pulled away, but a slow start that saw the Golden Eagles fall behind 21-0 created a gap that was too big to close.
Despite the loss, there were plenty of positive signs for Tyrone, most notably an offense that is starting to heat up as it acclimates to the system of first-year coach Jason Jones.
Here are four takeaways from the game.
FIRST DOWN: Walk and his receivers make strides
Nobody in Tyrone’s locker room anticipated a 30-point loss to Guilfoyle, but if there’s any player who could come away from the loss feeling better than when he went in it’s Ben Walk.
The senior quarterback has had his share of struggles this season, but over the last three weeks he’s begun to look more and more comfortable in a new offensive system. He completed 10 of 18 passes for 185 yards in Week 4 against Bald Eagle Area, and though he threw two picks against Bellwood-Antis he still managed to pass for 100 yards.
But if the Golden Eagles go on the kind of run to close the season that would land them a spot in the 3A playoffs, they may look to his Week 6 performance against the Marauders as the real spot things turned around. Against a relentless rush, Walk was never sacked, he went without throwing an interception, and he kept drives moving with on-target passes to receivers as he went through his progressions.
He looked like a quarterback who’s growing in confidence, and Jones said as much after the game.
“The way he’s grasped everything we’ve been putting in, I’m proud of him for that,” said Jones. “My goal is to get him more confident, especially as we start to go later in the year. If we can get into the playoffs at that point, and his confidence is rising as it is, I’ll feel very good about our chances.”
Walk finished 13-for-28 for 248 yards and 2 touchdowns, and while Mason Emigh continued to be his top deep threat, much the reason for his success came from the rest of his receivers getting open and making catches.
Senior Jesse Parks came through as a solid possession receiver with a career-best 5 catches for 49 yards, including two catches that moved the chains. Jon Stroup and Carter Gwinn remained reliable guys who were open at the end of plays, there for Walk to have a target when others were covered.
Colton Frye became a bigger part of the offense and was targeted 3 times. His 39-yard run off a swing pass in the second quarter showed that the Eagles may have another receiver capable of breaking big plays to compliment Emigh.
In all, Walk completed passes to six different receivers, and they all responded with sure hands and some yards after the catch.
That’s a good sign for Tyrone moving forward as it enters a stretch of games with significant playoff implications.
SECOND DOWN: Emigh in the midst of a big season
A week ago Mason Emigh joined a small but growing list of receivers at Tyrone who have racked up more than 1,000 receiving yards in a career. Including Emigh, the group now has 10 members.
Over more than 100 years of high school football in the borough, the unit is rather elite, especially when you consider there have been 22 1,000-yard seasons generated by Tyrone running backs.
Only Nick Patton has reached 1,000 yards in a single season, but Emigh has a real chance to get there himself with four games remaining in the regular season.
After posting 3 receptions for 137 yards against Bishop Guilfoyle, Emigh now has 542 yards, an average of 90 yards per game. What’s been interesting is that his numbers have increased game by game despite being the focus of almost every team’s coverage, and he’s had at least 100 yards in receptions in each of the last three games.
That’s what puts 1,000 legitimately within his reach. With sprinter’s speed, it doesn’t take much for Emigh to take a pedestrian pass play and turn it into a huge gainer in a hurry, so he’s always one catch or two away from a 100-yard game.
Lots of players have come close since Patton’s monster season in 2011, but none have quite made it. Damon Gripp had the best chance in 2020, when he ended a COVID shortened season with 981 yards.
Also in Emigh’s sights are records for career and single-season touchdown receptions. He’s currently got six this season, but he could move up 9 spots to No. 9 with two more. The single-season record is Patton’s with 15.
Along with that, Emigh is tied for 10th in career touchdown receptions and with two more could move up to No. 6, tied with Steve Johnson, Ross Gampe, and Andrew Weaver.
THIRD DOWN: Too many big plays
Bishop Guilfoyle’s offensive line is good enough that it can grind out long drives with 4- and 5-yard runs any day of the week, but that’s not what was happening against Tyrone.
Instead, the Marauders gouged the Golden Eagles’ defense with long runs and big plays, and it was how BG was able to get the jump on Tyrone early and go ahead 21-0 by the second quarter.
On the ground, the Marauders had 16 plays that went for 12 yards or more, and of those 8 were good for at least 15 yards.
That opened things up in the passing game, where two Marauder quarterbacks combined to go 10-for-10, and five of those plays were 15 yards or longer, including a 55-yard touchdown pass from Justin Wheeler to Evan Schimminger in the second quarter that stalled Tyrone’s momentum after it had cut the lead to 21-7. It came on the play following a 20-yard run by kicker Carter Boland on a fake punt.
Few teams are as sharp in their blocking schemes at the point of attack as the Marauders, and they’re just as good finding bodies downfield as a play progresses.
Tyrone’s tackling has been a bright spot this season, and the speed it works with on defense has generally limited the kinds of big plays BG had frequently on Friday. Returning to normalcy in that area will be one of the big keys for the Eagles this week against Huntingdon.
FOURTH DOWN: Zupon emerging on defense
Switching positions is never easy, and such a move can be compounded by new systems and new terminologies.
So it’s understandable it took junior Connor Zupon a couple of games to look comfortable playing linebacker for the Eagles this season.
He had spent his sophomore season playing safety, and in that role he was a heady player who was strong in run support. And while the shift to linebacker may seem on the outside like a simple adjustment of moving forward five or six yards, there’s a lot more to it than that.
Although he looked tentative early on, he’s come on lately, making a number of impact plays.
Two weeks ago he had his first sack against Bald Eagle Area, and against BG he may have had his best day at linebacker, with a pair of tackles for loss and a sack.
His sack of Justin Wheeler in the third quarter did a lot to change the momentum of the game, if only for a few minutes. He perfectly timed a blitz where he looped around the end, stuffed Wheeler from the blindside to cause a fumble, and then recovered the loose ball himself.
Tyrone went on to score on the ensuing possession, cutting Guilfoyle’s lead in half.
Zupon is one of two linebackers, along with Reid Starr, who will return for the Eagles next season, and if his growth over one season is anything like what he has shown in just six games, there’s a lot to look forward to for him and the defense as a whole.
