Since his reign of championship football at Tyrone began in 1995, coach John Franco has seen and beaten some of the best quarterbacks Western Pennsylvania has had to offer.
In 1999, there was Lee Fritz, that season’s best combination runner-passer among small schools in the WPIAL. The Eagles limited him to 95 yards passing in the Western Finals on their way to a PIAA championship.
In 2000, Bishop McCort’s Joe Arcurio, then a junior, was on his way to becoming the Crushers’ most prolific passer of all-time with more than 4,000 yards. In a District quarterfinal game, Tyrone picked him off three times to deal McCort a 34-20 defeat.
Even as recently as last season in the District 5-6 championship game, Tyrone’s secondary was tested by Forest Hills senior Brian Kudlaweic, a four-year starter who, like Arcurio, had thrown for over 4,000 yards. But the Eagles intercepted Kudlaweic twice, and hounded him into a 5-of-16 performance – his worst of the season – to capture the school’s seventh District title.
“The key has been that we’ve never allowed one player to beat us,” said Franco, who has now guided Tyrone into the PIAA playoffs in seven of the last 10 seasons.
But in all of those heroic efforts, the Golden Eagles (11-1) never saw a passing tandem like the one they’ll see Friday in the PIAA Class AA quarterfinals against Seton-LaSalle (13-0) at East Allegheny High School (7 p.m.). It’s a one-two punch that has already shattered Pennsylvania passing records, and is now on its way to making national history.
Carmen Connolly, a 6-1, 185-pound wide receiver, has 112 receptions this season (21 more than the previous state record), which ranks 10th nationally for a single season. He’s chasing down the national record of 132, and with an average of nine receptions per game, he could easily get there – if the Rebels make it past Tyrone.
To date, he’s totaled 1,543 receiving yards.
Connolly has received more than a little help from quarterback Bill Stull (6-3, 190), a precision passer who in last week’s WPIAL championship win over Aliquippa completed 19 of 35 passes for 323 yards to become the first District 7 passer ever to throw for over 3,000 yards in a single season.
That’s quite a feat when you consider that Western Pennsylvania is known as a breeding ground for some of the best arms in football history, with names like Montana, Marino and Unitas topping the list. But Stull could go a step further if his Rebels keep winning – he’s within 300 yards of the state passing record.
“I can’t recall ever facing anyone as tough as these two players,” Franco said, “and I’ve worked with some good ones over the years (at his passing camp), like Zach Mills and Tyler Palko.”
Franco believes there are two things the Eagles can do to limit Seton-LaSalle’s passing game, and only one of them deals with defensive X’s and O’s.
The first is to generate a pass rush that can hurry Stull and take him out of his rhythm. Through 12 games, the Golden Eagles have sacked opposing quarterbacks 19 times, and forced them into 17 interceptions. Senior Ben Gummo leads the team with 5.5 sacks, but his ability to get to the passer from his spot on the defensive end could be hampered by the torn meniscus he sustained in the District semifinals and played with in the championship game.
That means the Eagles will look to generate a rush from different angles. In the last two seasons, they’ve done it best from the perimeter, with defensive ends accounting for 25 sacks, but their interior linemen have proven capable, as well. Terry Tate has 3.5 sacks this season, and Paul Emigh has three. In all, Eagle lineman have accounted for 10.5 sacks this year.
“We need everyone stepping up and rushing from different angles,” Franco said. “We’ve got to generate a pass rush from different area. That could help to slow (Stull). You’re never going to stop the great ones, but you have to slow him down.”
The other way to slow Seton-LaSalle’s version of basketball on grass – the Rebels average 28 passes and 38 points per game – is to simply keep its offense off the field as long as possible. That means Brice Mertiff, Brinton Mingle and the horses on the line that make Tyrone’s rushing wagon go will have to be a major factor on Friday.
In regular season play, there wasn’t a team that could match up with Tyrone’s physically imposing line of Tate, Ron Miller, Ralph VanAllman, Jake Houck, Tad Chamberlain, Tyler Hoover and Mike Jones, and any time the Eagles wanted to run, they did.
It was even truer during the District playoffs. In three games, Tyrone rushed for an average of 256 yards per game and out-rushed its opponents by 180 yards per contest. Mertiff alone racked up 490 yards and nine rushing touchdowns in wins over Purchase Line (56-13), P-O (34-0) and Bishop McCort (15-6).
That’s allowed him to approach some hallowed records, as well. In reaching the century mark for the 10th time this season against McCort, Mertiff moved past Marcus Owens into No. 2 on Tyrone’s career rushing list with 4,333 yards. His six touchdowns against Purchase Line set a new school record for single-game scores, and his current total of 1,868 yards is the third-best single-season output in program history.
Mingle has rushed for over 700 yards and 18 touchdowns and quarterback Leonard Wilson has added 227 yards on 50 carries. In all, Tyrone has gained 3,179 yards this season by way of the run, an average of 264 yards per game.
“I like the match-up,” Franco said. “Believe it or not, we actually match up better with this team than some of the other teams from the west, like an Aliquippa. We can do some things to offset their great talent, but eventually it’s like, which poison do you choose. But at this level, you’re never going to get a poor team.”
Slowing the game with a grind-it-out running attack has to be a better approach than that of the Quips in Saturday’s WPIAL Class AA title game. Playing comeback ball from the start, Aliquippa tried to shoot it out with the Rebels, and the plan backfired. The Quips – the defending PIAA champions who were riding a 21-game unbeaten streak – were down 28-0 by the second quarter.
It ended 42-35 after a furious Aliquippa rally, and went in the books as the Rebels’ eighth game over 40 points this season.
No Small Compliment
With a passer like Stull and a receiver the caliber of Connolly, you might think there’s not enough ball to keep everyone on the Rebels’ squad happy. That’s not necessarily true.
In fact, the Rebels have kept their rushers satisfied, too, and no one more so than Brandon Bogdanski. In last week’s WPIAL championship game, he carried the ball 25 times for 169 yards and two touchdowns, and caught five passes for 66 yards and two other scores.
That’s 235 yards in total offense, and it added to outstanding season numbers for the 5-10 junior. He leads Seton-LaSalle in rushing with 1,502 yards, and he’s the team’s second-leading receiver with 37 receptions for 591 yards.
Along with Connolly, he’s one of several Rebel players Franco sees as being capable of scoring from anywhere on the field.
“It’s amazing how many deep passes and long runs their tailback has,” said Franco.“He’s broken a lot of long runs, and we have to work on stopping that.”
TAC
Franco said his coaches have stressed to the Golden Eagles the importance of limiting Seton-LaSalle’s yards after the catch.
“They’re going to catch the ball,” he said. “It’s going to be on us to tackle them on the spot.”
Turnovers
It’s been weeks since Tyrone has lost a turnover. The last time it happened was Week 6 against Bellefonte when the Eagles put the ball on the ground twice, losing both fumbles.
But it hasn’t been an issue in the weeks since, and Tyrone currently is plus-20 in the turnover ratio, with 26 takeaways.
Few have been better in that area than quarterback-defensive back Leonard Wilson. In 135 pass attempts this season, he’s been picked off only twice, and both of those came in a Week 5 loss to P-O. Since then, he’s gone 73 pass attempts without a pick, while lifting his season total to 965 yards through the air.
But last week, Wilson wasn’t just protecting the ball with precision passes. On defense, he came up with three interceptions, making him the team leader in that category. Four other players have two interceptions.
