For the first time this season, the 4-3 Tyrone Golden Eagles are above .500 after laying an impressive 39-7 smackdown on Huntingdon in a rain-soaked game at home last week.
Tyrone will look to add to their three-game win streak tonight as they travel to Ebensburg to take on the Central Cambria Red Devils. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
This will be Tyrone’s first trip to Central Cambria in many years. The Red Devils are one of the teams added to Tyrone’s schedule as a result of joining the expanded Laurel Highlands Conference.
Unlike last week, the weather should not be a factor. No rain is in the forecast. It should be a classic crisp fall football night with partly cloudy skies and 51 degrees at kickoff. The Red Devils play on a relatively new, fast-playing artificial turf surface.
The Red Devils enter the game with a 3-4 record, ranked 11th in the Laurel Highlands conference.
The Red Devils and the Golden Eagles have had two common opponents this season, and both games ended with similar results.
Central Cambria beat Greater Johnstown at home in week four 20-0, while the Golden Eagles also shut out the Trojans 35-0 at home in week 2.
Against Bald Eagle, the Golden Eagles lost 41-22 on the road in week four, a game that Tyrone went into the half down by only two, but Bald Eagle pulled away with 13 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.
The Red Devils also lost to BEA, but the game was much less competitive, ending in a 35-0 shutout for the Eagles on the Red Devils home turf.
Central Cambria’s other two wins both came on the road, against Bishop McCort in the season opener (15-10) and Bedford (12-7) in week 3.
Central Cambria is led by second-year head coach Don Fyfe. In the past two years, the Devils have had a lot of problems on the offensive side of the ball. However, they have more than enough playmakers to hang with the Golden Eagles through four quarters.
In Central Cambria’s offense, one man has been the go-to guy so far this season. Tailback Grady Snyder leads the team in both rushing and receiving with 1056 total all-purpose yards.
Snyder’s athletic ability is truly special as he can make defenders look silly in open space. Tyrone must shut down Snyder both on the ground and through the air to control the Red Devil offense.
Lined up at quarterback for the Red Devils is junior Hunter Pittsinger. Pittsinger has a strong frame at 5’11, 210 pounds. However, he has had a bit of a rough season so far with only 567 yards through the air with four touchdowns and four interceptions.
On the Tyrone side, quarterback Aston Walk has 1255 yards passing with 11 touchdowns and eight interceptions on the season. On the ground, Brady Ronan leads the team with 653 yards rushing. Ronan also has 281 yards receiving, for a total of 934 all-purpose yards.
Senior Andrew Weaver leads the Golden Eagles in receptions with 22 for 427 yards and four touchdowns. Weaver is averaging over 19 yards per catch.
But the story for the Golden Eagles in the last few weeks has been their ability to control the line of scrimmage. The play of the Golden Eagles’ offensive and defensive lines will be the key to this game.
Tyrone was able to get starter Cian Hockenberry back from injury two weeks ago to complement the team-leading lineman Braden Ewing and since then the play of the line has been steadily improving.
Brady Ronan was able to get over 200 rushing yards last week and will look to continue to gash teams up the middle using his unique speed and power. With an undersized Red Devil offensive line Tyrone will look to dominate up front.
With this being the last road game for Tyrone in the regular season, The Golden Eagles are looking to show the Laurel Highlands conference that they are a playoff contender.
While the Golden Eagles took their lumps in the first half of the season, this team has transformed right in time for the postseason and will look to continue their success.
