It’s been a while since the Tyrone football team played a Week 10 game without some stakes on the line.
Ever since joining the Laurel Highlands in 2023, the Week 10 East-West crossover game has been one that helped determine where the Golden Eagles would be seeded in the District 6 playoffs. The same could be said for the four seasons prior to that.
Truth is, it’s been since 2019 that Tyrone went into Week 10 with not much to play for. That season, the Golden Eagles finished 2-8 and got smacked by Huntingdon in the finale by a score of 30-13.
But even though Tyrone isn’t positioning for seeding in the 3A playoffs as it travels to Greater Johnstown this week for a game against the 1-8 Trojans, there’s still plenty on the line.
For one, a win would ensure that first-year coach Jason Jones finishes with a .500 record. Tyrone opened the season 3-1 but since has lost four of five games and heads to Trojan Stadium 4-5.
The Golden Eagles haven’t had a sub-.500 season since 2019, and it’s only happened four times in the last 33 years, so avoiding that kind of a finish would be huge.
Beyond that, there are records and milestones on the line, and the chance for at least one Golden Eagle to make history.
EMIGH HAS A SHOT
Senior Mason Emigh enters Week 10 with 1,526 career receiving yards, which by itself places him fourth all time among Tyrone receivers.
With 29 more yards, he could enter a rarified space occupied by only four other Golden Eagle pass catchers – a 900-yard season. Only Nick Patton (2011), Damon Gripp (2020), Cullen Raftery (2015) and Justin Schopp (2006) have had a single season that big.
But there’s more out there for Emigh than that. He’s currently sitting at 871 receiving yards this year, which means 129 more yards would get him to 1,000 in a single campaign. Only Patton managed to do that with his record-setting 1,228-yard season in 2011. That year, Tyrone won the District 6 2A championship and advanced to the PIAA finals, giving Patton 16 games to work his magic.
So a thousand-yard season for Emigh would be unique, but a thousand-yard season in just 10 games would place him in company all by himself.
And it wouldn’t take much out of the ordinary. Emigh already has 4 100-yard games to his credit this season, and three of those totals exceed the 129 yards he would need to reach the millennium mark. He achieved a season high of 176 yards in a single game as recently as three weeks ago against Huntingdon.
At the same time, Emigh’s 12 touchdown receptions this season rank him third on the all-time list at Tyrone, just two back from Trent Adams, who had 14 in 2024. With three touchdown catches, he would tie Patton’s 15 in 2011.
The Trojans are allowing 124.5 passing yards per game and have come away with 6 interceptions, so their pass defense is solid, but they also haven’t faced many passing attacks like Tyrone’s, nor have they been tasked with defending many receivers like Emigh. The best passing offense the Trojans have faced thus far – and it’s a legitimately good one – has been Richland, and Rams quarterback Jacob Regan was able to complete 20 of 28 passes for 306 yards.
Along with Emigh, quarterback Ben Walk has some numbers on the line as he navigates his way up Tyrone’s single-season passing charts. His 1,435 yards have him at No. 14 on the single-season list, but a strong game would allow him to leapfrog a host of passers in front of him. He has a strong shot at climbing into the top 10 if he can replicate what he’s done over the past four weeks, when he’s averaged 235 passing yards per game.
Were he to duplicate those numbers, Walk could even bump his record-setting brother down a notch. As a sophomore in 2022, Ashton, who is Tyrone’s all-time leader with more then 8,000 passing yards, threw for 1,653 yards, which is the seventh-best single season in Golden Eagle history. That’s well within Ben’s reach if he continues the trajectory he’s on.
NEXT SEASON STARTS NOW
Emigh and Walk will be two significant losses from the Eagles’ starting lineup next season, along with other standouts like Kyler Suhoney, Dylan Robinson, and Jesse Parks.
But plenty of other players will be back, and for them Friday’s game is one final chance to showcase what’s returning in 2027.
At the top of the list are Reid Starr and Jon Stroup, two excellent defenders and top skill players who really began to shine offensively midway through he season. Stroup has 25 receptions for 193 yards, and 17 of those receptions have come in the last four games. His production, along with that of Parks, who is currently second on the team with 293 yards, has been a major factor in the Eagles’ offensive surge since their 44-14 loss to Bishop Guilfoyle in Week 6.
Starr, meanwhile, has emerged as the workhorse out of Tyrone’s backfield, and since taking over the top spot following an injury to Caleb Whitby in Week 3, he’s carried 112 times for 421 yards. His top game came in Tyrone’s Week 8 win over Penn Cambria, when he ran for 132 yards on 20 carrries.
Both of those players will figure heavily into the Golden Eagles’ offensive plans a year from now, so for them next season starts now.
Away from Tyrone’s skill players, linemen like Gage LaRosa, Zach Silva, and Mason VanAllman have the challenge of asserting a ground game against a team that has struggled to stop the run this season.
Those players will return in their roles next season, so Tyrone’s game against the Trojans is hardly a tryout, but it is one last chance to build confidence heading into 2027, when their spots on the field will come with greater expectations.
BEAT THE ONE’S YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BEAT
One of the things that made Tyrone ultra successful under John Franco and the coaches who immediately followed him was the Eagles rarely lost to lesser teams they were supposed to beat.
From 1995 through 2016, for example, Tyrone lost just one time to teams from Centre County, racking up almost 100 wins against the combination of Bellefonte, Bald Eagle Area, Philipsburg-Osceola, and Penns Valley.
There have been few locks on Tyrone’s schedule in 2026, when District 6 3A in general, and the Laurel Highlands East in particular, has been as competitive as ever. The one game the Eagles should have won – Westmont-Hilltop in Week 2 – they did win decisively.
Johnstown may be the only other team on Tyrone’s schedule that falls into that category. The Trojans have struggled mightily over the last 9 years, a period of time in which Johnstown has gone 5-85, with five winless seasons.
This season, Johnstown has scored only 95 points while surrendering just over 37 per game.
The Eagles have been a good team during Jones’s first campaign, and good teams beat the ones they’re supposed to beat, which makes the season finale against Johnstown a good test.
