Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Not to make you freak, but Tyrone’s no-name offense is getting scary good as the season winds on.
And when it’s all said and done, the numbers may not say it’s the best to put on Orange and Black, but it may be one of the most effective.
Take last night, for example, when Tyrone methodically ground out 431 yards of total offense in a 44-7 win that most pundits agreed would be much closer.
Put it together with the 34 points scored against Clearfield in Week 4 and the 41 the Eagles dropped on BEA last week, and you see a pattern forming.
There was a time when it was Tyrone’s defense that was the stabilizing force for the Golden Eagles. And it’s not like they’re performing poorly now. The Flying Dutchman became the fifth team to score a just single touchdown or less against Tyrone.
But like last week, when Tyrone needed an early turnover and a goal line stand to finally get its footing on defense, it was the Eagles’ offense that established the tempo against St. Mary’s
The Dutchmen took the opening kick and went 67 yards for the opening score, twice breaking plays of 30 yards, the second of which quarterback Kyle Simchick scored on after eluding a sure sack on third-and-three.
Tyrone’s offense regrouped quickly. Starting at their own 25, the Eagles marched 75 yards in 13 plays to tie the game six minutes later.
And they did it without a Jesse Jones or Marcus Owens or Brice Mertiff. They did it without a Johnny Franco or a Justin Schopp.
Instead, it happened with a bruising offensive line that dominated St. Mary’s at the line of scrimmage, and big plays from running back Larry Glace and quarterback Levi Reihart.
Glace started things with a 28-yard run on second down, and carried seven times on the drive for 41 yards. Reihart completed three key passes, including a third-down conversion hook-up with Eric Desch, a 13-yard strike to Ben Ingle, and a 5-yard touchdown toss to Johnny Shaffer.
Dutchmen 7, no-names 7. Who needs star power?
“Tyrone is an excellent team, and they were better than us tonight,” St. Mary’s coach Joe Schlimm said.
“We had to get adjusted after their first drive,” said Tyrone coach John Franco. “Everything starts with our offensive line. They have a heck of an 8-man front and they were tough to block.”
Easy or hard, the results were the same. Tyrone totaled 315 yards on the ground, behind Glace’s 146 on 21 carries.
But it was Reihart who really kept the offense moving. He completed 9-of-16 passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns, finished without throwing an interception for the sixth time, and rushed for 58 yards on five carries.
“I think the team believes in me,” said Reihart, who has now thrown for 767 yards. “It’s all the offensive line. They let me know they will give me time. We knew that was the strong point of our team coming into the season, and I believe in them. They are the focal point of our team.”
No series demonstrated the line’s ability and Reihart’s penchant for making plays more than Tyrone’s final offensive play of the first half. The Eagles were already ahead 17-0 after Reihart and Glace teamed for a 30-yard touchdown on a screen pass in the first and Shaffer kicked a 25-yard field goal in the second.
But after moving 60 yards in just over a minute, Tyrone was on St. Mary’s 5-yard line with just seconds left in the second quarter. Reihart took the snap and rolled left to the short side of the field and found no one open in the end zone. From there, he tucked the ball away, cut back right to juke one defender, and then bulled his way through two more at the goal line.
The third of Shaffer’s five PAT kicks made it 24-7 at halftime. That effectively ended the hopes of the Dutchmen.
“To run the way we did against that front is impressive,” Franco said. “Levi did an outstanding job, but he would be the first one to give the line the credit. We used our passing game to keep them off balance.”
The line asserted itself again after Tyrone received the second half kick. The Eagles drove 77 yards on 10 rushing plays with Glace twice breaking loose for gains of 18 yards. Mark Mingle scored from the 1 to make it 31-7.
The Eagles scored without reverting to the pass again at the start of the fourth quarter, taking over at the St. Mary’s 39 after Reihart recovered a fumble. The big play was a 37-yard scramble by Reihart to the 1. Three plays later, Mingle crashed in with his second score.
Lost in the shuffle was Tyrone’s defensive effort, which took away the Dutchmen’s bread-and-butter running game by keeping them in second-and-long and third-and-long situations most of the night. That forced a running team to pass, with little success. Simchick was just 1-for-7 in the first half for minus-2 yards. He finished 5-for-12 for 54 yards.
“They took us out of what we wanted to do offensively,” said Schlimm. “At second- and third-and-long, we struggle.”
“We kept them in third-and-long, and we wanted to keep their offense off the field with long, sustained drives,” said Franco.
Tyrone added a late touchdown on a 10-yard, tackle-breaking run by Cody Smith. The score was set up by a 53-yard run by Kyle Ripka.
GRID TIDBITS: Tyrone improved to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the MAC Nittany Division … St. Mary’s fell to 4-2 and 4-1 … Glace now has 725 yards on 96 carries … Tyrone held the Dutchmen to 111 yards rushing. They came in averaging 238 yards on the ground … Matt Murray and Jared Templeton each had sacks.
TYRONE 44 ST. MARYS 7
TYRONE 14 10 7 13 – 44
ST. MARY’S 7 0 0 0 – 7
First Quarter
S – Simchick 30 run (Barber kick) 9:30
T – Shaffer 5 pass from Reihart (Shaffer kick) 3:49
T – Glace 30 pass from Reihart (Shaffer kick) 1:21
Second Quarter
T -Shaffer 25 field goal 3:10
T – Reihart 5 run (Shaffer kick) :07
Third Quarter
T – Mingle 1 run (Shaffer kick) 7:10
Fourth Quarter
T – Mingle 1 run (Shaffer kick) 9:54
T – Smith 10 run (PAT failed) 3:34
Team Statistics
T SM
1st Downs 20 7
Yards Rushing 315 111
Pass Att.-Comp. 9-17 5-12
Yards Passing 116 54
Total Offense 431 165
Int. By 0 0
Fum. Rec. 1-0 2-2
Punts-Avg. 2-28.5 2-20
Penalties/Yards 4-15 4-32.5
Individual Statistics
RUSHING
TYRONE – Glace 21-146; Reihart 5-58; Ripka 2-55; Mingle 10-26; Gault 6-20; Smith 3-10.
ST. MARY’S – Straub 7-33; Simchick 7-29; Krise 7-13; Long 1-9; Bennett 1-7; Wolfel 1-6 ; Merritt 1-5; Kronenwetter 1-5; Uhl 1-4; Lewis 1-(-5).
PASSING
TYRONE- Reihart 9-16, 116 Yds., 2 TDs, 0 Ints.; Walker 0-1, 0 Yds., 0 TDs, 0 Int.
ST. MARY’S- Simchick 5-12, 54 Yds., 0 TDs, 0 Ints.
RECEIVING
TYRONE – Ingle 3-30; Shaffer 3-28; Desch 2-28; Glace 1-30.
ST. MARY’S – Straub 1-20; Feldbauer 1-17; Samick 1-12; Krise 1-7; Hoy 1-(-2).

By Rick