Indian Valley coach Gawen Stoker stood in appreciation of the performance of Brice Mertiff following the Warriors’ 41-12 loss to Tyrone Last night at Gray Veterans Memorial Field on Senior Night.
Mertiff had just run for 189 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries, surpassing the thousand-yard mark for the second consecutive season and breaking off enough highlight-reel runs to make even a hardened veteran like Stoker – who has seen just about everything in 30 years of coaching – take notice.
“He’s pretty darn good,” Stoker said. “I will fault some of our tackling, but when a kid goes left – down there on the goal line he went left and broke the whole way back across the field. Heck of a job. Heck of a job.”
Stoker was referring to a second quarter touchdown by Mertiff on which he took the ball off tackle to the left, cut back across the field between defenders, and then stutter-stepped and popped his way between two defensive backs at the goal line for a 14-yard touchdown that gave the Eagles a 28-0 lead with 2:37 left before half.
It was a Mertiff original, mixing speed, power, vision and cutting ability – a scene that has become familiar to Tyrone fans since Mertiff took over as the starting tailback midway through his sophomore season.
But it wasn’t his best run of the night. That one came on the first play from scrimmage in the second half.
It started at the Tyrone 40 with Mertiff zipping through a hole at the line of scrimmage, breaking towards the left sideline. He burst through a crack between two defenders, and nearly made it all the way to the outside until Jordan Brought reached out and grabbed right shirtsleeve, spinning Mertiff back towards the middle of the field. But rather than go down, he maintained his balance and cut back across the grain to the right sideline.
After eluding several would-be tacklers, Mertiff got to the outside and sprinted to the goal line, where he was stopped a half-yard shy of the endzone for a 59-yard run. He scored a play later and Ben Gummo fifth extra point of the night made it 35-0 with 10:49 to play in the third.
Mertiff now has 1,177 yards this season on 139 carries, and his milestone game left him with more than 3,600 yards for his career, putting the 4,000-yard plateau well within reach if the Eagles can make another playoff run.
But on a night made to recognize the senior class, rather than single out individuals Tyrone coach John Franco tipped his cap to his elder statesmen for their collective effort over the last three seasons.
“(The program) had a couple of years of mediocrity. They really took the ball and got us back on track,” Franco said. “They’ve given the community some great thrills, and they’ve given them a championship, also. Now we’re trying to one-up it.”
The Eagles came one step closer to making the goal of outdoing last season’s District title run a reality. The Mountain Athletic Conference non-divisional win improved their record to 6-1 on the season and further solidified their spot as one of the top two teams in District 6-AA, which would ensure home field throughout the first two rounds of the playoffs.
“One of our goals was to get a top one or two seed and another was to win the conference, and we need a win next week for that,” Franco said, referring to the Eagles’ date next week in Spring Mills with Penns Valley. “We could accomplish two goals with one win.”
But for now Tyrone will enjoy its latest accomplishment. The Eagles won for the 16th time in their last 18 games, and they did it by dominating the ground and controlling the line of scrimmage, as they have all season.
Eight Warrior plays ended in their own backfield, including sacks of quarterback Anthony Trutt by Ben Gummo and Brandon Maceno. In the first quarter, only one of Valley’s plays went for more than 10 yards, and only one drive lasted longer than four plays, contributing to a miserable first half in which the Warriors amassed only 52 yards of total offense.
Meanwhile, the Eagles steamrolled IV from their first possession. They over on downs at the IV-31 following a fake punt that ended in an incomplete pass, and it took Tyrone just 58 seconds to score, with Leonard Wilson hitting Gummo on 24-yard fade. Gummo had to adjust to the ball and made the grab while fully extended to stake his team to a 7-0 lead with 9:27 to go in the first.
After the Warriors managed just four yards on a punt to end their second series, Tyrone went 23 yards on five plays for its second score, a two-yard blast by Brinton Mingle at 4:51.
Mertiff registered his first score at 10:33 of the second quarter, capping an eight-play drive that went 80 yards and giving Tyrone a 21-0 lead.
Tyrone held a 28-0 lead at halftime and led 35-0 in the third quarter following Mertiff’s picturesque dashes, and was never slowed offensively until late in the fourth quarter with most of the Eagles regulars on the sideline.
Shifty junior Dustin Brown ran for 47 yards all in the third quarter and scored on a nine-yard run. He was one of four Eagles to have a run of at least 12 yards.
“They’re a nice football team,” said Stoker. “But we have to do a better job of tackling people. Even if they’re good backs, we have to get to where we can tackle them.”
Valley scored twice late, with the first touchdown coming on a seven-yard run by Trutt on an option keeper. The play ended an eight-play, 65-yard drive and cut the score to 35-6 with 6:31 left in the third.
The other came with 7:07 left in the fourth on a 15-yard pass from Trutt to Matthew Daubert, putting an exclamation mark on a 13-play, 67-yard drive that was kept alive with a nine-yard completion from Brought to Andrew Green on a fake punt attempt.
GRID TIDBITS: Andy Ashcroft had a fumble recovery to stop Valley’s final drive at the Tyrone 34 … The Warriors dipped to 1-7 … Josh Crabtree broke up two passes … Trutt finished with 120 yards through the air, completing 12 of 21 passes … Valley averaged just four yards per play to Tyrone’s 7.9 … Mertiff had five runs 15 yards or longer.
Tyrone 41 Indian Valley 12
Tyrone 14 14 13 0 – 41
Indian Valley 0 0 6 6 – 12
First Quarter
T – Gummo 24 pass from Wilson (Gummo kick) 9:27
T – Mingle 2 run (Gummo kick) 4:51
Second Quarter
T – Mertiff 8 run (Gummo kick) 10:33
T – Mertiff 14 run (Gummo kick) 2:37
Third Quarter
T – Mertiff 1 run (Gummo kick) 10:49
IV – Trutt 7 run (PAT blocked) 6:31
T – Brown 9 run (PAT failed) 1:37
Fourth Quarter
IV – Duabert 15 pass from Trutt (Pass failed) 7:07
Team
T IV
First Downs 13 15
Yards Rushing 314 95
Pass Att.-Comp. 2-9 13-23
Pass Yards 33 129
Total Yards 347 224
Fumbles/Lost 0-0 1-1
Interceptions Thrown 0 0
Penalties/Yards 6-29 6-40
Punts/Avg. 1-52 4-17.5
Rushing
Tyrone – Mertiff 14-189; Brown 5-47; Wilson 3-42; Christine 3-19; Mingle 3-10; Barlett 6-7.
Indian Valley – Reed 5-29; Trutt 12-26; Shilling 2-16; Knepp 4-10; Harris 1-9; Shartzer 3-4; Barber 2-1; Thompson 2-0.
Passing
Tyrone – Wilson 2-9-33, 1 TD.
Indian Valley – Trutt 12-21-120, 1 TD; Brought 1-2-9.
Receiving
Tyrone – Gummo 1-24; Chamberlain 1-9.
Indian Valley – Daubert 4-53; Shartzer 1-21; Knepp 2-17; Shilling 2-15; Brought 1-12; Green 1-9; Drayer 1-3; Reed 1-(-1).
