Philipsburg-Osceola football suffers blowout loss to Tyrone

In 2010 portions of the movie “Unstoppable” were filmed in Tyrone.

The game film from Tyrone’s 42-21 romp over Philipsburg-Osceola on Friday night could be a sequel to that Denzel Washington thriller about a runaway train.

Because the Golden Eagles rolled over the Mounties, racking up all 42 of their points in the first half to put the mercy rule in effect before the break, amassing 318 yards in total offense and adding an interception return for a touchdown to lock up their first victory of the year.

And they did it with a balanced attack, getting 200 yards from the arm of quarterback Denver Light and 94 on the legs of Brandon Loose.

“We needed to have a balanced attack,” Tyrone coach Jason Wilson said. “We wanted to just chip away, move the sticks. Their defense had played pretty well the last couple of weeks, so we tried to pick them apart. We were pretty efficient.”

Deadly too, scoring on their first two possessions.

Tyrone took the opening kickoff and marched 66 yards on nine plays, capping the drive when Light found Parker Mitchell from 19 yards out for the score at the 8:04 mark. Ethan Vipond’s PAT made it 7-0.

After the Tyrone defense held the Mounties to a three-and-out, the offense went on another drive, starting from its on 27. After moving to the P-O 41 Light and Mitchell connected for 36 yards and Loose finished the drive from with a two-yard touchdown run two plays later. Vipond made it 14-0 with 2:51 in the quarter.

Thomas Hicks picked off P-O’s Bubba Slogosky, and Loose scored on the next snap on a 12-yard run at the 7:08 mark.

And the next time Tyrone touched the ball, it hit on three big plays — a 17-yard pass from Light to Cory Lehman, a 24-yard run by Loose and a 21-yard pass from Light to Mitchell to move the ball to the 5 and Zac Albright took it in from there at the 5:41 mark.

The Golden Eagles activated the mercy rule on the next snap when RaShawn Hicks picked off a Slogosky pass and ran it back 47 yards for a touchdown with 5:23 left in the half. Vipond’s kick made it 35-0.

“We had the momentum and the pick-six just added on to it,” Wilson said. “It was exciting for the kids. You could see them getting all pumped up.”

Tyrone’s final points came at the end of a 58-yard drive when Light and Jamal Hicks combined for an 18-yard score and Vipond made it 42-0 with 1:18 to go in the half.

The second half belonged to P-O as the Mounties scored the first two times they touched the ball.

Matt Johnson capped a 67-yard drive by scoring on a one-yard touchdown run, but the kick failed at the 6:40 mark.

P-O recovered the ensuing onside kick at the Tyrone 49 and finished the drive with a three-yard touchdown run by Slogosky. Slogosky and Johnson hooked up for the two-point conversion to make it 42-14.

The Mounties scored again early in the fourth quarter when Slogosky again scored on a three-yard run and Keegan Soltis kicked the PAT with 6:53 left in the game.

“It was too little too late,” P-O coach Mike Mann said. “We got down too much in the first half. And when you’re playing Tyrone, you know you’re always playing a good team. They have a lot of speed. And even though they were 0-3 they lost to three good teams.

“But the turnovers hurt us again. It happened last week, and it happened again today. Those things just kill momentum. And of course they put together some nice drives, too.”

This story was originally published September 16, 2017 at 12:44 AM with the headline "Philipsburg-Osceola football suffers blowout loss to Tyrone."