Penns Valley football unable to hold onto its lead, falling late to Tyrone
Coaches stress all the time to their teams that they have to play a full game.
On Friday night, Penns Valley came up two minutes shy of a complete game.
The Rams gave up a pair of scores with under two minutes left in a game, after leading the whole way until that point, falling 28-18 to Tyrone in a Mountain League matchup.
“They made the plays when they needed to, no question,” Penns Valley coach Martin Tobias said. “This is something we are going to learn from. We’ve got a young squad. I’m really proud of their effort.”
The entire fourth quarter had to feel like an eternity for the Rams, which led 18-13 at the time, and had not trailed since there was only 4:42 left in the first quarter. They were pinned deep in their half of the field the entire quarter, and unable to get out.
Penns Valley opened the fourth quarter with a drive that started at their seven-yard line. It managed to get to the Golden Eagles’ 36, but had to punt.
“We were pinned back with poor field position. We didn’t have the ball much,” Tobias said of the quarter. “If you look at the time of possession in the second half, they controlled the clock. Our defense came up big a couple of times, forcing them to punt, but they flipped the field on us and kept us pinned back. We weren’t able to dig our way out.”
Tyrone started a drive at its 10 with 7:49 on the clock. It chewed up over four minutes off the clock to have its drive fizzle out, and was forced to punt.
The Rams had a quick three-and-out on a drive that started and ended at Penns Valley’s 11. Tyrone took the ensuing punt at the Rams’ 43 and returned it to the 26.
The Golden Eagles’ drive began with 2:21 left in the game. Five plays later, Tyrone’s backup quarterback Ashton Walk connected with Brady Ronan for a nine-yard score. It looked as though a Penns Valley lineman was held on the play, but the officials didn’t call the penalty.
Walk connected with Ross Gampe on the two-point conversion to give Tyrone a 21-18 lead with 1:53 left in the game. On the ensuing kickoff, the Rams fumbled on the return, and the Golden Eagles recovered.
Twenty-four seconds after scoring, Ronan rumbled in from 20 yards out to seal up the game for Tyrone. The Golden Eagles lead was now 10 with 1:29 left in the game.
“We were going against a Tyrone team that has improved a lot from the beginning of the season until now,” Tobias said. “They came up and made the plays they needed to. We didn’t.”
Penns Valley made plenty of plays in the first half. It even rattled off 18 unanswered points.
After seeing Tyrone open the game with a 14-play drive, which ended with a score and ate 7:10 off the clock, the Rams responded with a scoring drive of their own.
Tanner Ilgen capped off a six-play drive with a two-yard run to tie the game at 6-6. Quarterback Jackson Romig, who completed his first nine consecutive passes of the night, connected with Zach Braucht and Miles Brooks for big plays on the drive.
Penns Valley’s defense forced a punt on Tyrone’s next possession. The Rams’ offense went to work on a seven-play drive that saw Romig hit a wide-open Braucht for a 17-yard score. It gave Penns Valley a 12-6 lead with just over eight minutes left in the first half.
The Golden Eagles went on another clock-chewing drive that looked like it was going to end with a score. They got to the Rams’ five-yard line, when Ilgen picked off Tyrone’s Keegan Gwinn.
Ilgen returned the interception 95 yards to give Penns Valley an 18-6 with 2:10 left in the half.
Tyrone had just enough time left in the first half to put another score on the board to get within 18-13 after the half.
“That is a good program. Marty Tobias runs a great program down there,” said Golden Eagles coach John Franco. “Their kids are always so tough. When they came here two years ago, it was about 52-14 or something like that. We knew how good they were. Last year, we were 7-0, but they gave us maybe the toughest game we had all year.”
Notes: Penns Valley had just 17 yards rushing in the game on 16 carries. ... Rams defense had three sacks with Scott Hess (2) and Gavin Ryan collecting them. Hess finished with three tackles for loss. ... Each team had to use their backup quarterbacks.
Tyrone 28, Penns Valley 18
Friday at Tyrone
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Penns Valley 6 12 0 0 -- 18
Tyrone 6 7 0 15 -- 28
First Quarter
T--Corrie Beck 14 pass from Keegan Gwinn (kick blocked), 4:42
PV--Tanner Ilgen 2 run (kick blocked), 1:38
Second Quarter
PV--Zach Braucht 17 pass from Jackson Romig (run failed), 8:24
PV--Ilgen 95 interception return (pass failed), 2:10
T--Ross Gampe 19 pass from Ashton Walk (Gwinn kick), :58
Fourth Quarter
T--Brady Ronan 9 pass from Walk (Gampe pass from Walk), 1:53
T--Ronan 20 run (Gwinn kick), 1:29
TEAM STATISTICS PV T
First downs 6 22
Total yards 260 362
Rushes-yards 16-17 38-114
Yards passing 243 248
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 14-18-2 20-33-1
Punts-avg. 4-38 4-43.8
Fumbles-lost 2-1 1-0
Penalties-yards 2-18 6-50
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Penns Valley, Ilgen 7-24, Romig 4-(-13), Ty Watson 5-6. Tyrone, Ronan 17-87, Beck 7-17, Kolten Miller 4-17, Walk 8-(-13), Team 2-(-4).
PASSING--Penns Valley, Romig 14-18-243-2. Tyrone, Walk 11-21-168-0, Gwinn 9-12-80-1.
RECEIVING--Penns Valley, Miles Brooks 4-103, Braucht 5-102, Watson 3-20, Hunter Lyons 1-14, John Meyer 1-4. Tyrone, Gampe 7-71, Cortlynd Rhoades 5-68, Beck 5-58, Miller 1-40, Ronan 1-9, Colton Veres 1-10.
Records: Penns Valley 3-4, Tyrone 3-4
Next game: Everett at Penns Valley, Friday, 7 p.m.
