When Tyrone and Philipsburg-Osceola last played on October 10, Mountie coach Jeff Vroman was direct in his message to his team after losing 24-7.
The loss, he told them, put them in a perilous situation. In order for the Mounties to make the playoffs, they would have to win the rest of their games.
In response, P-O belted county rival Bald Eagle Area 24-6, devastated St. Mary’s 34-14 to secure a spot in the postseason, and last week won the school’s first-ever District 6 playoff game with a 19-18 win over Chestnut Ridge in the Class AA quarterfinals.
Now 7-3, and listed among Honorable Mentions by the Harrisburg Patriot in its weekly high school football rankings, the Mounties are back where their quest for the postseason truly began: playing at Gray Veterans Memorial Field against Tyrone, now 9-1 and ranked eighth by the Patriot.
And this time, according to Vroman, the Mounties are a team sincerely prepared to step up to the plate against one of the dominant Class AA programs of the last eight years.
“I think our team has grown and matured since that loss,” Vroman said. “The kids weren’t pleased at all with how they played the first time and they think they can play better.”
That’s not to suggest P-O played all too badly in their first meeting with the Eagles. While they surrendered 285 yards and rushed for only 77, the Mounties were in the game until the fourth quarter and were it not for their inability to convert three to four key plays they could have easily turned the table.
“We were within fourth-and-a-foot three times and we came up short,” said Vroman. “If we’re third-and-three, we’ve got to get four in those situations. We also dropped some key passes – a couple of times inside Tyrone’s 40. The last couple of weeks, we’ve made plays and now we need some people to step up and do it again.”
Whether P-O’s playmakers can continue to thrive against one of the District’s top defenses is another question. Tyrone is allowing only 155 yards and 8.5 points per game this season and against the run – the Mounties’ forte – the Eagles are all but unmovable, allowing an average of 73 yards per game.
In the first matchup this season, Tyrone completely stifled P-O’s running attack and turned leading rusher Adam White (212-1523, 16 touchdowns) into a non-factor.
“He is the most explosive player in Double A,” said Franco. “You always have to be on your guard against a player like him and the defense can never relax. It’s an all-game-focus type thing. Every play is a big play.”
Big plays were what the Eagles were all about a week ago in their quarterfinal victory over United (42-7). Tyrone scored on plays of 20 yards or more four times, rushed for 229 yards and totaled a season-high 415. Sophomore Leonard Wilson had a breakout game, completing 10 of 13 passes for 186 yards and four scores and senior Tommy Crowl caught four passes for a career-high 97 yards and two touchdowns.
“I was pleased with the continued evolution of our offense,” said Franco. “We’re getting better each week in terms of balance. Last week was the best we’ve passed all year and that’s the kind of improvement you need to have if you want to be successful in the playoffs.”
Vroman took notice of Tyrone’s success on the arm of Wilson.
“Last week Tyrone took advantage of what was given to them by the defense,” Vroman said. “I’ve looked at the tapes of Tyrone in the games since we’ve played them and I think we have a lot of things in our defense that can take away some of the things they like to do. We won’t completely shut them down, but I did see some things in their passing game I think we can exploit.”
The main problem is, as United coach Chris Matava said after losing to Tyrone last week, when you focus on taking one thing away from the Eagles, they’ve always got something else to take its place.
So while United bottled up leading rusher Brice Mertiff to a point (21 carries, 89 yards), Wilson and Crowl had a field day. P-O could find itself in a similar situation unless it finds a way to slow Tyrone’s running game, which predicates most of what the Eagles will do.
That’s a task no team has been up to through 10 games. Tyrone has rushed for 2,219 yards this season, led by Mertiff’s 1,265 yards on 202 carries. The Eagles have outrushed every opponent this season and have three backs with over 250 yards.
WE MEET AGAIN
Tomorrow’s game will mark the second time under Franco’s watch that Tyrone has faced a regular-season opponent in the postseason. It happened first in 2000 when Tyrone lost to Bellwood-Antis 18-0 in the season opener before defeating the Blue Devils 28-3 in the Class AA championship.
While the situation is unique for AA teams in Blair, Centre and Huntingdon Counties, it’s something Franco is familiar with from his days as a coach at Altoona, where the Mountain Lions often rematched against Quad-A teams from the season schedule in the playoffs.
“I’ve done it several times and while the first time may be weird, they do it all the time in the NFL and in Quad-A,” said Franco. “The kids do it every year in basketball. After having done it, it’s like any other game. It becomes almost like an extended halftime where you go into the locker room, make adjustments and come back out. We’re just not used to it in Double-A in our area, but in the Laurel Highlands Conference, Forest Hills, Central Cambria and Bedford often play each other in the regular season and in the playoffs.”
FIRST TIME WINNERS
They’ve been playing football for more than 80 years in Philipsburg, but last week’s victory over Chestnut Ridge was the program’s first-ever win in the postseason.
It’s something that Vroman said took him until Sunday to recover from, and something that has charged the community.
“For people in Philipsburg, this is all new to them” Vroman said, who is in only his second year at P-O, a school that hadn’t even made the playoffs since 1995. “The excitement has rubbed off on a lot of people and that’s great to see. The community is thriving off of it. Did I think we could do it with the kids here, yes. Did I think it would happen this quickly, probably not.”
THE TIME IS NOW
With a team top-heavy with underclassmen while carrying only six seniors, most pundits early on viewed Tyrone as a contender in 2003 and a team no one wanted to face in 2004.
Franco said he sees the logic in that theory, but the Eagles would prefer to take what they can when they can.
“We said from the start that we would never talk about next year because we want to see what we can do this year,” Franco said. “This could be our best shot. You never know what’s going to happen – who’s going to be here next year and who isn’t. Nothing is written in stone so you have to take advantage of the moment.
“The kids have been really focused at practice and they’re realizing that they have a shot at a District championship. At the beginning of the season, people said, and rightfully so, we’re a year away. Well, now, we’re a week away.”
