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closePHILIPSBURG — As Tyrone football coach John Franco was leaving the field Friday night when he was met by two young fans holding a sign congratulating him on his 200th coaching win at Tyrone.
It’s safe to say that few of the previous 199 were achieved in more trying conditions.
On a night when a light snow persistently fell on a field the consistency of chocolate pudding, Franco’s Golden Eagles beat Philipsburg-Osceola 27-7 in a game that could have been played 50 years ago.
“This sort of reminded me of one of those old NFL games you see in black and white,” Franco said. “These were very challenging conditions. You have to sort of coach and play on the run. There’s no game plan for this. This was old-fashioned football. It was a fun night.”
At least it was for him as he watched his team methodically distance itself from the Mounties as the game moved along.
A short P-O punt gave Tyrone the football on the Mounties’ 43. An 18-yard screen pass from Steve Franco to Levi Reihart was good for 18 yards and a first down and a personal foul penalty at the end of the play put the ball on the P-O 15. The Mountie defense stiffened, yielding a yard on three plays, forcing Jared Templeton to try a 32-yard field goal on the south end of the field. His kick cleared the cross bar with little room to spare, giving the Golden Eagles a 3-0 lead with 7:24 left on the clock.
Later in the quarter, Steve Franco made a leaping interception of a Mike Marcinko pass near midfield and returned it to the P-O 5.
But again, the Mountie defense hung tough, yielding only a yard on three snaps. Again, Templeton was called on to try a field goal, this one from 22 yards out. And again, he was dead on, making it 6-0 with 1:30 left in the quarter.
“That end of the field was so difficult,” Coach Franco said of the turf conditions. “We warmed up down there and inside the 10 it was really tough. But Jared is a really good athlete. He can do so many things; he might have the best arm on our team. And I think the bigger guys (Templeton is a lineman) have more stability. He has always seemed to kick well in the mud.”
The second quarter was a battle for field position, which Tyrone finally won thanks to a 20-yard P-O punt that gave the Golden Eagles the ball at the Mountie 20.
Eight running plays moved the ball to the P-O 23 where on third-and- 17, Franco connected with Reihart for 18 yards and a first down at the 5.
On the next play, Franco found Eric Desch in the left corner of the end zone where Desch made a one-handed catch for the touchdown with 25 seconds left in the half. Templeton made it 13-0.
“We like that play,” Coach Franco said. “We throw it for the outside shoulder so that if Eric can’t catch it it goes out of bounds and stops the clock. Steve did a nice job putting it in there. That play was huge.”
Tyrone received the kickoff to start the second half and Reihart, who finished the night with 166 yards on 17 carries, went 59 yards on the first play from scrimmage for a crushing touchdown.
“We wanted to control the ball and take some time off the clock,” Coach Franco said. “Levi screwed up our plans. He really hadn’t practiced much all week until Thursday. He got a really deep thigh bruise last week.”
P-O finally got on the board in the fourth quarter when Marcinko, who was three-for-three in passing, found Parker Watson in the back of the end zone from 12 yards out with 6:54 to play. Zack Czap kicked the PAT.
But the Golden Eagles killed any P-O hopes of a rally when they recovered an on-sides kick attempt at the Mountie 49 and four plays later Reihart got loose around the right side and went 32 yards for the score. Templeton’s kick with 4:33 left set the final score.
Franco said Tyrone wanted to contain Czap and fullback Steve Rusnak.
“Numbers 7 (Rusnak) and 6 (Czap) are two of the best players in our league,” he said. “And 6 is one of the best play-makers in District 6. He has so many weapons. Our game plan was to shut them down.”
It worked as Rusnak was held to 46 yards on nine caries while Czap was limited to 26 yards on eight attempts as P-O managed only 92 yards on the ground and 127 yards in total offense.
In Print
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