Tyrone’s season came to an unexpected end due to a fourth-quarter collapse by the Golden Eagles. Leading for all but 32 seconds of the contest, the Golden Eagles couldn’t string together enough plays to halt Penn Cambria’s game-winning drive.
Tyrone lost the coin flip but was given the ball first. Aided by a Penn Cambria defensive pass interference penalty, the Eagles drove into Penn Cambria territory. A 27-yard touchdown pass from Ashton Walk to Dravyn Crowell capped off the drive. The Golden Eagles took an early 7-0 lead.
The rest of the first quarter was slow for both teams. Penn Cambria’s offense was shut down by the Golden Eagle defense, which created a tremendous opportunity for Tyrone’s offense to take an early 2-score lead. But Tyrone was unable to do anything with the ball and closed out the first quarter with a 7-0 lead.
In the second quarter, Penn Cambria quickly drove down the field and took advantage of a blown coverage by the Golden Eagle secondary to score a 23-yard passing touchdown. But the extra point was blocked by Eli Woomer to stop the Panthers from tying the game.
I thought that we played a solid first half, we knew that this was going to be the toughest game of the year… We had to come out on fire in the second half
— Head Coach John Franco
Less than 2 minutes later, a Golden Eagle drive featured Dravyn Crowell and Andrew Weaver making big plays to move the chains, resulting in a 7-yard rushing touchdown from Brady Ronan to regain the lead at 14-6.
A huge defensive interception followed by a 70-yard return from Seth Hoover put the Golden Eagles on the 10-yard line and put them in a great scoring position. Just 3 plays later Ashton Walk converted to Andrew Weaver for a touchdown and improved Tyrone’s lead to 15 points.
On the ensuing Penn Cambria drive, the Golden Eagles defense forced Penn Cambria into a 4th-and-long scenario. Penn Cambria elected not to punt this time, and converted a 15-yard pass to move the chains. Later in the drive, senior wide receiver Carter McDermott caught his second touchdown pass of the half to cut Tyrone’s lead to 21-13 going into halftime.
“I thought that we played a solid first half, we knew that this was going to be the toughest game of the year… We had to come out on fire in the second half”, said Head Coach John Franco.
Coming out of halftime with a comeback in mind, Penn Cambria got more points on the board with a Gavin Harrold 57-yard touchdown run to shorten the Tyrone lead. But the Golden Eagles responded immediately with an 88-yard touchdown run from Brady Ronan to close out the third quarter and solidify a 1000-yard rushing milestone for Ronan.
The fourth quarter featured many missed opportunities for Tyrone. A Luke Walk interception put the Golden Eagles in scoring position to put the game out of reach for Penn Cambria. But a fumble gave Penn Cambria the ball back. Fortunately for Tyrone, Eli Woomer came up with an interception on fourth down and gave Tyrone the ball back.
The Golden Eagle offense was unable to find any success. With just under 9 minutes to play, Tyrone was forced to punt the ball and trust their defense to stop the Panthers. Unfortunately, the defense didn’t even get a chance. The punt was blocked and returned for a touchdown by Carter McDermott to make the score 28-25 Tyrone.
Following the blocked punt, the Tyrone offense managed to drive into Penn Cambria territory. Unfortunately, a 15-yard Penn Cambria sack halted the drive, forcing the Golden Eagles to punt with just under 3 minutes to go in the contest.
In need of a score, Penn Cambria turned to senior Carter McDermott. McDermott returned the Golden Eagle punt 37 yards to the 50-yard line. Just 2 plays later, McDermott made a 25-yard diving catch to put Penn Cambria on the Tyrone 15-yard line.
The Tyrone defense stuffed back-to-back Penn Cambria run plays, forcing the Panthers to throw. Looking for the go-ahead score, Quarterback Brady Jones took a shot to the end zone. The pass fell incomplete, but a pass interference was called on the Golden Eagles. Penn Cambria scored 2 plays later, giving the ball back to the Golden Eagle offense with just 32 seconds to go.
“We knew that time wasn’t on our side… we had to get the ball moving fast if we wanted to win”, said Junior quarterback Ashton Walk.
The Tyrone offense was able to make a few plays and position themself on the Penn Cambria 35-yard line with an opportunity to score. Unfortunately, time wasn’t in favor of Tyrone. Ashton Walk was forced to heave a pass to a double-covered Andrew Weaver in the end zone as a last hope to winning the game. The pass was broken up and Tyrone’s season came to an end.
Tyrone ended the season with a 6-5 record, finishing 9th in the Laurel Highlands Conference and 25th in Class 3a. Congratulations on a great season Tyrone.
Penn Cambria advanced to the District Final against Central at Mansion Park to play on Friday 11/9 at 7 pm.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Tyrone 7 14 7 0 — 28
Penn Cambria 0 13 6 13 — 32
First Quarter
T–Crowell 27 pass from Walk (Romani kick), 8:26.
Second Quarter
PC–McDermott 23 pass from Jones (kick blocked), 10:36.
T–Ronan 7 run (Romani kick), 8:22.
T–Weaver 10 pass from Walk (Romani kick), 5:37.
PC–McDermott 14 pass from Jones (Dillon kick), 1:30.
Third Quarter
PC–Harrold 57 run (run failed), 0:50.
T–Ronan 88 run (Romani kick), 0:32.
Fourth Quarter
PC–McDermott 7 fumble recovery (kick failed), 8:48.
PC–Harrold 2 run (Dillon kick), 0:32.
TEAM STATISTICS T PC
First downs
T:13
PC:15
Total yards
T:303
PC:361
Rushes-yards
T: 28-151
PC: 34-190
Yards passing
T: 152
PC: 171
Passing (comp.-att.-int.)
T: 13-26-1
PC: 10-22-3
Punts-avg.
T: 5-35
PC: 3-29.7
Fumbles-lost
T: 1-1
PC: 1-0
Penalties-yards
T: 7-75
PC: 11-110
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING–Tyrone, Ronan 23-151, Hoover 1-3, Walk 1-(-5), Crowell 1-2. Penn Cambria, Plunkett 11-79, McDermott 2-1, Jones 11-23, Harrold 10-87.
PASSING–Tyrone, Walk 13-26-1-152. Penn Cambria, Jones 10-22-3-171.
RECEIVING–Tyrone, Ronan 2-11, Woomer 3-49, Weaver 4-56, Hoover 3-21, Crowell 1-15. Penn Cambria, Plunkett 1-0, McDermott 5-120, Harrold 4-51.
