Despite giving up a 92-yard touchdown on the opening kickoff, Tyrone bounced back quickly and beat BEA 27-19 after their ground game pummeled the Bald Eagle defense. Led by seniors Brandon Loose and Parker Mitchell, Tyrone tallied 260 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns. Even though he’s been Tyrone’s number one wide out all season, Mitchell was under center for Tyrone on Friday night after junior quarterback Denver Light was injured last week.

Tyrone got things going right off the bat with a 13-play, 63-yard drive that Loose capped with a 4-yard TD run. Then, on a second and nine in the pouring rain,  Loose made a couple BEA defenders miss and chugged 83 yards in a footrace with the Bald Eagle secondary for a TD with 2:36 left in the first quarter.

“That was a big one,” Wilson said. “He’s really explosive. He’s lacked that this year, I think, because he hasn’t been hitting the hole and he hasn’t found those open windows to cut back across. He really did that time. He made a couple guys miss. He’s still pretty quick.”

With 2:20 left in the first half, Bald Eagle brought the game to within two, 14-12, after BEA’s quarterback found a receiver in the end zone with a little over 2:00 remaining in the half.

Tyrone received the second half kickoff and Loose would earn the hat-trick and score his third touchdown by capping off the opening drive with a 1-yard TD run. The Golden Eagles caught a break late in the third quarter after a high snap got away from BEA’s punter and junior Aric Reader beat him to the ball in the end zone to put Tyrone up 27-12.

“Another big play,” Wilson said. “It seems like that’s always a play that happens to us, and we finally got one that went in our favor.”

Reader had a huge night defensively picking up four tackles for losses and three sacks that ignited the Tyrone defense.

On Bald Eagle’s final drive, on 11 plays they drove down the field all the way to the Tyrone 16-yard line, but on third down, while BEA’s quarterback was trying to elude tacklers and find an open receiver, Denver Light and Aric Reader sacked him for a 24-yard loss forcing fourth down.

“It feels good,” said Loose. “I feel like we played Tyrone football, and I’m happy where we are right now. We want to continue to build on this and win the rest of our games.”

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Bald Eagle Area 6 6 0 7 –19

Tyrone 14 0 13 0 –27

First Quarter

BEA–Roberts 92 kickoff return (kick failed), 11:44

T–Loose 4 run (Vipond kick), 6:15

T–Loose 83 run (Vipond kick), 2:36

Second Quarter

BEA–Turner 5 pass from Ja. Jones (run failed), 2:20

Third Quarter

T–Loose 1 run (run failed)

T–Reader recovers high punt snap in end zone (Vipond kick), 5:11

Fourth Quarter

BEA–Turner 1 pass from Ja. Jones (Harris kick), 2:22

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING:

Bald Eagle Area – McClenahan 13-44, Ja. Jones 12-19, Roberts 3-7, Henry 2-(-3)

Tyrone – Loose 28-196, Mitchell 8-62, Albright 2-4, R. Hicks 1-(-1)

PASSING:

Bald Eagle Area – Ja. Jones 19-24-1-162.

Tyrone – Mitchell 5-11-1-52.

RECEIVING:

Bald Eagle Area – Gardner 4-51, Rees 4-41, McClenahan 4-24, Turner 3-20, Henry 3-17, Bisel 1-9.

Tyrone – Albright 1-16, Lehman 1-12, Loose 1-9, R. Hicks 1-9, J. Hicks 1-6.

INTERCEPTIONS:

Bald Eagle Area — Roberts.

Tyrone — Light.

TEAM STATISTICS

First downs

BEA: 12

Tyrone: 15

Yards rushing

BEA: 32-47

Tyrone: 40-260

Passing (comp.-att.-int)

BEA: 19-24-1

Tyrone: 5-11-1

Passing yards

BEA: 162

Tyrone: 52

Total yards

BEA: 209

Tyrone: 312

Fumbles lost

BEA: 3-2

Tyrone: 1-1

Penalties-yards

BEA: 4-25

Tyrone: 2-15

Punts-avg.

BEA: 2-26.5

Tyrone: 4-31.5