In the wake of his team’s 46-point loss last night to Tyrone in the first round of the District 5-6 AA playoffs, Purchase Line coach Dave Small stood on the 40 yard line at Gray Veterans Memorial Field looking for answers as he spoke to the media.
What’s surprising is the one that eluded him.
“The Number 30 boy for Tyrone – what’s his last name?” Small questioned the group of reporters.
“Mertiff,” came the reply.
“I heard it so many times, I should know it,” Small quipped.
Relatively speaking, Small didn’t hear Mertiff’s name more than most coaches this season. The 5-10 senior toted the pigskin 19 times, about one above his per game average, but it was what he did when he got his mitts on the ball that troubled Small.
Mertiff rushed for a career-high 234 yards, caught one pass for 44 yards and scored a school record six touchdowns as the Golden Eagles dropped Purchase Line 59-13 to advance to the District semifinals next Saturday.
“Our line blocked awesome tonight and coach gave me a chance to score some touchdowns,” said Mertiff, who last week tied the school record with five scores against Penns Valley. “I’m surprised to get six touchdowns, but with the way (the line) is blocking, it makes it a lot easier.”
The previous record was first established by Wilbur “Wib” Ammerman in 1924, and tied over the years by Marcus Owens, Jesse Jones, Mark Wyland and Dennis Rozick. Mertiff whittled that list down to one with his performance against the Red Dragons, but tried to keep it in perspective afterwards.
“Being included with great running backs like that, it feels good,” he said. “It’s nice to be at least somewhere around in the mix.”
“Brice is an amazing running back,” said Tyrone coach John Franco. “He’s a heck of a player. He can take his place right up alongside Jesse Jones and Marcus Owens and Mark Wyland, and some of the great backs that we’ve had here. I kind of felt he was going to have a big game because he practiced really well this week.”
While Mertiff’s numbers stand out, there were others that demanded attention following the Eagles’ most lopsided victory since defeating Philipsburg-Osceola 58-14 last season in the District semifinals. Classmate Ben Gummo tied the school record of eight extra-points in a single game set by his brother Scott in 1999. Tight end Tad Chamberlain grabbed two passes for a career-high 53 yards and quarterback Leonard Wilson went without an interception for the ninth time in 10 games.
Still, when the players finished shaking hands after the final horn sounded, Franco was as intense as ever when addressing his team before leaving the field.
“What I was telling them is that we can’t just relax now because we got a big win,” Franco said. “We know next week is going to be a much tougher game and whoever we play is going to be a great football team.”
The Eagles could easily find themselves rematched with P-O, which dealt Tyrone its only loss of the season on October 1 with a 7-6 win at Memorial Field. The 3-seeded Mounties face Chestnut Ridge tonight at home.
That’s a game that Tyrone will watch with keen interest, but first they’ll enjoy their best offensive output of the season. The Eagles scored on seven of their nine possessions – one other touchdown came when Shane Christine recovered a fumbled punt in the endzone – at one point cashing in on five consecutive drives.
“Things just went right for us tonight.” Franco said. “Everything went right. I’m surprised that we had that much offense on this team because they played great defense all year.”
The Eagles started the game on the heels of a Mertiff interception with a four minute drive that went 55 yards in nine plays. Mertiff carried four times for 32 yards and Brinton Mingle covered the last three to put Tyrone ahead 7-0 with 6:10 to play in the first quarter.
Dragon quarterback Doug Lenz looked as shaky on his second throw of the game as he did on his first, this time throwing an interception to Mingle on Purchase Line’s first play after the score. Mingle returned it 25 yards to the PL-10, and one play later Mertiff scored on a 10-yard run for a 14-0 lead.
But the Dragons responded with their best series of the game, moving 58 yards in nine plays for a touchdown that put them back into the contest for a moment. The key play of the drive came when Lenz hit Chris Gee for a 23-yard gain on third-and-five from the PL-47. Six plays later, Robert Hopkins ran in from the four, making it 14-6.
“I’m thinking at that time that if we can get a stop, it could be a different complexion to the game,” said Small.
The euphoria didn’t last long. A poor kick gave Tyrone the ball at the Dragon 49 with 32 seconds left in the first quarter, and on the Eagles first play Mertiff broke loose down the left sideline and scored with 14 seconds left.
Mertiff then brought the house down on Tyrone’s first series of the second quarter. From the T-49, an option pitch from Wilson to Mertiff was just wide and landed on the turf seven yards behind the line of scrimmage. Mertiff picked it up, avoided one oncoming tackler, got a terrific block from Wilson and broke containment on the opposite side of the field. He broke back to the middle against the grain again and picked up 26 yards before finally being tripped up at the PL-25.
Two plays later, on third-and-29 after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty pushed the ball back to the PL-44, he hauled in a Wilson pass over the middle, cut outside, and eased into the endzone for a score that put Tyrone up 28-6 with 10:19 left in the half.
“Our defense finally held them to some negative yardage, and for them to break a play like that just breaks your back,” said Small.
The Eagles scored one more time before the break, this time on an eight-play, 90-yard drive highlighted by a 44-yard catch and run by Chamberlain, who just missed his first varsity touchdown when he was brought down at the one. Mertiff scored on the next play to lift Tyrone to a 35-6 halftime advantage.
Mertiff would score twice more on Tyrone first two drives of the second half, once on a 35 yard run capping a 61-yard drive and once on a four-yard run to top off a 43-yard drive.
The Dragons made it 49-13 in the fourth quarter when Hopkins scored his second touchdown on a one-yard run, capping a 68-yard drive, but the Eagles got the score back when Christine recovered a fumbled punt in the Purchase Line endzone with 1:51 to play.
GRID TIDBITS: James Updike recovered a fumble for Tyrone … Tyrone stopped Purchase Line five times behind the line of scrimmage, led by Terry Tate’s two tackles for loss … Purchase Line was surrendering just over nine points per game coming in and hadn’t allowed a team to score more than 28 in a single game … Tyrone has now forced 21 turnovers this season, while losing the ball only six times …. Franco credited the offensive line for Mertiff’s record night, while Small singled out Tate for making Tyrone’s plays off tackle work as effectively as they did … the Eagles are now 8-0 under Franco in first round District playoff games at home….Mertiff has now rushed for 4,037 yards.
Tyrone 56, Purchase Line 13
Purch. Line 6 0 0 7 – 13
Tyrone 21 14 14 7 – 56
Score by Quarters
First Quarter
T – Mingle 3 run (Gummo kick) 6:10
T – Mertiff 10 run (Gummo kick) 5:38
P – Hopkins 4 run (PAT failed) :35
T – Mertiff 49 run (Gummo kick) :14.4
Second Quarter
T – Mertiff 44 pass from Wilson (Gummo kick) 10:19
T – Mertiff 1 run (Gummo kick) 2:33
Third Quarter
T – Mertiff 35 run (Gummo kick) 9:52
T – Mertiff 4 run (Gummo kick) 5:36
Fourth Quarter
P – Hopkins 1 run (Hopkins kick) 4:09
T – Christine fumble recovery in endzone (Gummo kick) 1:51
Team Statistics
T P
First Downs 17 14
Yards Rushing 33-288 28-98
Pass Att.-Comp. 3-6 11-20
Pass Yards 97 127
Total Yards 385 225
Fumbles/Lost 0-0 3-2
Interceptions by 3 0
Penalties/Yards 2-30 4-25
Punts/Avg. 2-35.5 4-33.3
Individual Statistics
Rushing
TYRONE – Mertiff 19-234; Christine 5-27; Mingle 4-15; Gillmen 2-10; Barlett 3-7; Wilson 2-(-5).
PURCHASE LINE – Long 9-45; Hopkins 15-22; Lenz 3-18; L. Small 1-13.
Passing
TYRONE – Wilson 3-6-97, 1 TD
PURCHASE LINE – Lenz 10-18-125, 2 Int.; S. Small 1-2-2, 1 Int.
Receiving
TYRONE – Chamberlain 2-53; Mertiff 1-44.
PURCHASE LINE – Engle 3-56; Hopkins 2-27; Rorobaugh 2-16; C. Gee 1-23; Goodin 1-9; D. Gee 1-2; Long 1-(-6).
