It hasn’t been an easy week of practice for the Tyrone Golden Eagles.
The Eagles (1-1, 0-1 Big 8) have been forced to come to grips with the fact that they let a top-notch opponent and league rival off the hook last week with turnovers and an inability to control the ball in the fourth quarter with the game in hand.
Against two-time defending Big 8 Conference champion Huntingdon, Tyrone controlled the clock, dominated the line of scrimmage, and dictated the tempo of the game for the better part of three quarters.
But two second-half turnovers, including a fumble on the Eagles’ first possession of overtime when trailing 23-20, cost them a chance to take an early lead for the conference title.
It was a bitter pill to swallow, and when Monday came, Tyrone coach John Franco was worried about his team’s confidence and focus for Lewistown – 0-2 Lewistown; the Lewistown that hasn’t finished above .500 in almost 30 years; the Lewistown Tyrone has beaten every year since 1995.
“Anytime a team dominates another team in every phase of the game and loses, it’s depressing,” said Franco, whose team squares of tomorrow against the Panthers at 7 p.m. at Mitchell Field. “Lewistown has a good team and they can beat us if we’re not totally focused. It’s been a tough week of practice. As young as our players are, every team on our schedule can beat us. I’m more concerned about us emotionally this week than I am physically.”
The Panthers are trying to avoid a similar emotional letdown. They were blown out in Week One by a Philipsburg team that ground out over 300 yards rushing, but last week against Bald Eagle Area, Lewistown was on the verge of an important early-season victory before BEA scored with 5:29 in the game to win 16-14.
“We’re in sort of the same boat,” said Lewistown coach Rob Reeder, who in his first season with the Panthers in 2002 went 3-7. “That was a game we had high expectations for, and to come out and play as well as we did in the second half only to lose at the end – we had hoped for more.”
The difference is Lewistown came to practice Monday rejuvenated and anxious to play, according to Reeder. As for the Eagles, Franco couldn’t quite get a feeling for where their emotions lay.
“I can’t get a read on this team,” he said. “We talked about it and practiced fast so they wouldn’t have any time to feel sorry for themselves.”
The Eagle coaching staff also tried to accentuate the positives from last week’s loss and use the game as a learning experience.
“We tried to look at it rationally and when we watched the films we tried to use it as a learning tool,” Franco said. “We told them that we can be a pretty good football team if we don’t beat ourselves. More football games are lost than won. We saw first-hand what can happen if you don’t take care of the little things.”
In most of the big categories, Tyrone overwhelmed Huntingdon. The Eagles outgained the ‘Cats by more than 100 yards, outrushed them by more than 140, and defensively limited them to 24 plays of zero or negative yardage.
Tyrone dominated both lines of scrimmage and held running back Jerrod Smith, who in Week 1 gained 117 yards, to just 28 yards on 13 carries. In fact, in two games, Tyrone is surrendering a mere 52 yards per game on the ground.
That doesn’t bode well for the Panthers, whose wide-open, spread-out, no-huddle offense could be pushed to its limits if they cannot run the ball. It’s an area that hasn’t been a strong suit for Lewistown, which has rushed for just 72 yards in two games.
“Our biggest disadvantage is our inexperience on the offensive and defensive lines,” said Reeder. “Up front on offense we start five brand new varsity players who are all underclassmen. It’s the same on defense.
“Our problems in our running game concern us because, while a lot of people think to run the spread offense you just spread the players out and throw, there are certain points where we’re counting on our running game to set up the pass.”
To his credit, Panther senior quarterback Nathan Heider has performed well, despite the absence of a significant running attack. He’s thrown for 340 yards and four touchdowns in two games while completing 54 percent of his passes.
That presents a formidable challenge to the Eagles’ secondary, which was burned for 106 yards and two key completions against the ‘Cats, one a badly blown miscoverage that allowed Smith to get behind the defense for a 60-yard touchdown that gave Huntingdon a second-quarter lead.
A Cloud of Dust
The Golden Eagles’ running game has been impressive over the first two weeks in its ability to dictate a methodical tempo that wears on an opposing defense. In 93 rushes against Bellwood-Antis and Huntingdon, Tyrone has averaged 4.6 yards per carry behind a big athletic line that explodes off the line of scrimmage.
That’s bad news for the Panthers, who are yet to demonstrate that they can slow that kind of push. After allowing 324 yards on the ground against Philipsburg-Osceola – 285 of which was gained by senior Adam White – the Panthers gave up 228 against Bald Eagle.
“We’re very green on the defensive line and at linebacker,” said Reeder. “Those aren’t positions you want to play without some veterans.”
Junior Brice Mertiff, who collected his first varsity 100-yard game against Lewistown a year ago, has carried most of the load for Tyrone, hauling the ball 54 times for 264 yards and four touchdowns. Junior Ben Gummo, who also totaled 100 yards for the first time against the Panthers, has 102 yards and one score on 20 carries and has caught three passes for 42 yards.
Quarterbacks Settle in
Although the game last week didn’t end like quarterback Brandon Maceno would have liked – the junior signal caller fumbled on Tyrone’s first possession in overtime – he made strides as a varsity passer. Maceno completed six of eight passes for 71 yards, including three straight during a one-minute, 57-yard drive late in the second quarter that ended with a Gummo field goal.
Sophomore Leonard Wilson completed one of four passes for 14 yards.
They were the first passes Tyrone completed of the season, after Wilson and Maceno went a combined 0-for-4 against the Blue Devils.
“The passing game is getting better, but there is room for improvement,” said Franco. “There were some things that happened late in that game that may have been my fault. I got a little too conservative and that hurt us a little. It may have been because there were two young quarterbacks in there, but they’re both to the point where we can begin to open things up a little more.”
Office Line(man)
Junior defensive lineman Terry Tate had his coming out party against the ‘Cats, making seven solo tackles, including three behind the line of scrimmage. At one point in the second quarter, Tate dumped Smith on consecutive plays for a net minus-five yards.
