Golden Eagles spread wings against Rams

Ron Bracken

TYRONE — In keeping with the Halloween spirit, Tyrone's football team showed up at Gray-Veterans Memorial field as a monster.

Actually, according to Penns Valley coach Martin Tobias, the Golden Eagles were a “two-headed monster.”

And while his Rams weren’t scared, they were also unable to handle the well-balanced Golden Eagle offense and fell 24-6. It was the 31st consecutive home field victory for Tyrone.

For the night, the Golden Eagles ran for 128 yards and threw for 192 as they came close to doubling Penns Valley’s total offensive yardage.

“They’re a two-headed monster,” Tobias said. “If you shut down one part of their offense, they have the ability to go the other way. They hurt us in third-and-long situations in the first half and you can’t give up those plays on third and long. They have the ability to be diversified. If you stop the run they can throw the ball. A couple of big plays hurt us.”

The teams traded punts early in the game, but midway through the first quarter on a third-and-10 from its own 31, Tyrone got one of those big plays as Steve Franco, on a play-action pass, spotted Nick Patton running free down the middle of the field behind the Ram secondary and hit him in stride for a 69-yard scoring strike. Jared Templeton added the PAT at the 4:07 mark.

“That’s one of our basic plays,” said Tyrone coach John Franco. “We must have practiced that a thousand times. And we’ve hit it several times this year. Nick is one of the fastest kids around. He’s got excellent speed and if he gets even with you he’s gone. He put a beautiful move on that kid, the kid slipped a little bit and it was all over. That was one of those plays where the protection was perfect, the pattern was perfect and the pass was perfect.”

Tyrone scored again on its next possession, marching 59 yards in 15 plays. Zach Gault got the final yard to make it 13-0 at the 6:07 mark before Templeton tacked on the PAT. Three times in the drive the Golden Eagles connected on third down passes for first downs.

The Golden Eagles added a third score with just over a minute left in the half as Steve Franco found Dave Cherry free in the corner of the end zone for a five-yard scoring pass and Templeton added the PAT to make it 21-0 with 1:02 to go.

Tyrone threatened to blow the game open when it took the second half kickoff and drove to the Rams 10, where a Steve Franco pass fell incomplete on fourth-and- 6 from the 10.

One play later, Penns Valley was at the Tyrone 15 as Kody Bjalme got loose around the right side and bolted 75 yards before Steve Franco knocked him out of bounds. It took the Rams six more plays to get into the end zone when Bjalme slammed in from the 2. The PAT attempt was no good.

“In the locker room at halftime our kids felt they were just one or two plays away from putting a drive together in the first half,” Tobias said. “That gave them confidence in the second half. And when you can break a big play it helps. I thought our kids played really hard and I’m proud of how they came out and competed against Tyrone. They weren’t intimidated by the atmosphere. We were able to make a couple of nice plays.”

Tyrone got the final points of the night when it drove to the Penns Valley 3, then sputtered thanks to a penalty and two plays that netted negative six yards, pushing it back to the 16, from where Templeton kicked a 31-yard field goal to make it 24-6 with 4:59 left in the game.

The win sets up a showdown between once-beatens next Friday when Tyrone visits Central.

But John Franco said his team wasn’t looking ahead to that battle.

“Tonight’s game and last week’s game (against Lewistown) were more important because they guaranteed us a higher seed (in the playoffs),” he said. “And we knew this would be a tough game. Coach Tobias always has his team prepared and they play hard. They’re big and strong and they played well. They always do.

“But I couldn’t be prouder of our team. For this team to be in the position it’s in, coming from where it was at the beginning of the year when we weren’t a very good football team, we’re a pretty good football team now.”

You might say it’s getting to be scary good.