As far as John Franco and the Tyrone football team are concerned, the playoffs are starting a week early this season.
When the 7-1 Golden Eagles (4-1 Mountain Athletic Conference Nittany Division) visit Penns Valley tomorrow at Spring Mills (7 p.m.), they will do so with a measure of control over their own destiny. A victory will mean no worse than a number two seed in next week’s District 6-AA playoffs, and home field advantage until the finals. It would also ensure at least a piece of the first MAC Nittany Division championship.
Certainly, Tyrone would rather have the top seed locked down by now, along with an outright divisional championship, but its Week 5 loss in Philipsburg meant that at least part of the Eagles’ fate would be determined by the performance of others. Now, as the regular season winds down, Franco isn’t ready to surrender what control his team has won back with victories in the last three weeks.
“We want to get that playoff mindset ready,” said Franco. “This year we’ll face the toughest double-A playoff field a Tyrone team has ever faced, so we made a pact to treat this like a playoff game.”
That’s not exactly what Penns Valley coach Martin Tobias would like to hear. At 3-5 (1-4 MAC), his Rams have struggled in their first MAC season, playing mostly schools from the former Big 8 Conference, as opposed to the ICC, the small-school conference of which Valley is still a part-time member.
Against bigger and more physical competition, the Rams have been one of the Nittany Division’s weakest teams against the run, currently allowing more than 215 yards per game. Now, they’ll be facing not only the division’s best running team (262 yards per game), but one with a clearly defined purpose in its regular season finale.
“We’re hoping their bus breaks down on the way to the game,” quipped Tobias about Tyrone’s powerful offensive line. “They’ve got great quality linemen with outstanding skill people. Their size and ability to mix it up on offense is something we don’t have. We can’t simulate it in practice because we’re not at that level yet.”
Franco doesn’t see the disparity between the two programs in quite the same light as Tobias. After all, he has to develop a game plan to deal with a line nearly as big as the Eagles’, as well as a pair of running backs that stack up well against the best of the MAC Nittany Division in Evan Leitch and Josh Hull.
Leitch, in fact, is poised to surpass the 1,000-yard mark for the season, with 947 yards on 131 carries. Hull, meanwhile, with 391 yards, is averaging over five yards per carry and is a threat as both a rusher and a receiver.
That duo has been the driving force behind Valley’s lone bright spot: a running game that – save last week’s 50-yard performance in a 42-0 loss to Bellefonte – has been consistently productive, averaging 200 yards per game.
“We’ve hung our hat on our running game all season,” said Tobias. “It has been our strength.”
“They’ve run the ball up and down on people,” said Franco, whose team has allowed just one 100-yard rusher this season. “Any time you have a big team, if they’re motivated they can play good.”
Motivation hasn’t been the problem this season for the Rams. Instead, their problems stem from their step up to the MAC. Valley’s lone MAC win came in Week 1 against Bald Eagle Area, the one team worse against the run than the Rams.
Since then, Valley has been outscored 85-35 in conference play.
“It’s a growing process for us,” said Tobias, who led the Rams to three consecutive ICC titles as recently as 1997-99. “It’s a big adjustment mentally and physically. Our kids have handled the mental part well this season; now we’ve got to get be better prepared physically.”
Opportunity Knocking
Finding the difference between teams who have success on the gridiron and those who don’t is usually as easy locating one statistic: turnover plus-minus.
Teams that protect the ball and force turnovers are winners. Teams that flub the ball aren’t.
Through eight weeks, Tyrone has been outstanding when it comes to protecting the football. They’ve put the ball on the ground seven times and lost only four fumbles. Meanwhile, quarterback Leonard Wilson has thrown just two interceptions, and both of those came in Tyrone’s loss to P-O.
Still, the Eagles’ turnover ratio stands at just 2-1. That’s not bad, but considering how well the Eagles have protected the ball, Franco would like to see Tyrone create more opportunities by forcing turnovers.
“We definitely want to force more,” he said. “But you have to understand that we get everybody’s A-game. They know they can’t play us and turn the ball over. But I know the time is going to come when there will be a team that we get a few on.”
Opposing rushers have carried the ball 82 times in the last three games against Tyrone and put the ball on the turf twice.
Stretching the defense
Senior Ben Gummo will go down as one of the most versatile players in school history, but his switch to receiver this season may be the most valuable move he’s made in his four-year varsity career.
Since 1996, Tyrone has always had a deep threat with speed to stretch opposing defenses and take advantage of defensive backs that inch closer and closer to the line of scrimmage as the Eagles’ running game revs up. It’s a list of players that includes Aaron Jeffries, Steve Johnson, Tommy Crowl and Jeremy LaRosa, but the position needed a boost this season, following the graduation of Crowl.
After making the switch from running back, Gummo has stepped in to lead the team with 17 receptions for 298 yards and three touchdowns, and lately his receptions are coming deeper and deeper downfield, including a 24-yard touchdown reception last week.
“That’s why we moved him there,” said Franco. “He has outstanding speed and there’s no doubt we’ve tried to establish him as a deep threat.
“But you can’t forget about Trey Brockett, and Josh Crabtree has been a good possession receiver.”
Four Grand
With 189 yards last week against Indian Valley, senior Brice Mertiff now has 3,642 rushing yards for his career, placing him third on Tyrone’s all-time list behind Marcus Owens (4,314) and Jesse Jones (6,902), who posted incredible numbers for championship teams in the 1990s and 2000.
A strong performance against Valley, coupled with a run into the playoffs, could be enough to catapult Mertiff over the 4,000-yard mark.
Mertiff, Jones and Owens are the only TAHS rushers to surpass 3,000 yards for a career, and they’re the only backs to go over 1,000 yards in a single season more than once.
