Last Saturday the 12-1 Tyrone Golden Eagles brought home the District 6 AA title for a record 10th time in school history.

Tyrone played the underdog card to its advantage in that game, taking down the previously undefeated Trojans.

They are looking to turn that same underdog ‘nothing-to-lose’ mentality into another win this Saturday in DuBois against a 10-2 Hickory team that just won its fourth consecutive District X championship.

“We aren’t content with just this. We can keep going. We have come a long way but our best accomplishments are still ahead of us,” senior running back Aleic Hunter said.

Hunter comes off an incredible 304 yard, five touchdown performance against the Trojans in the District VI title game.   He will need to produce some big numbers once again this week if the Golden Eagles are to pull out a win.

Unlike Tyrone’s last opponent, Hickory’s strength is its ferocious defense while its weakness, if it has one, is actually its offense.

On offense the Hornets start a freshman, Luke Brennan, at quarterback.   Brennen wasn’t asked to throw much early in the season but into the playoffs he has been called upon much more often.  He was 20 of 42 last week vs Greenville.

Sophomore Chuck Carr is the primary running threat for the Hornets, rushing for 1200 yards and 19 touchdowns this season.

On the defensive side, the Golden Eagles will see perhaps the toughest defensive line they have seen all year.

The Hornets are currently ranked 10th in the state among all schools (A-AAAA) in points allowed at a measly 9.5 average points allowed per game.

Tyrone is ranked 27th in that category with a similarly impressive 11.9 points allowed per game.

However, in the playoffs the Hornets have not faired as well defensively as they did in the regular season, giving up an average of 16 points per game in their three playoff games.  By comparison, the Tyrone defense has given up 14.3 points per playoff game.

The Hornets defense comes off the ball low and hard and have a knack for busting plays up in the backfield before they even have a chance.

The Hornets biggest playmaker on defense is safety Andrew Pryts, a very athletic player with division 1 potential, Pryts leads the team in tackles from his safety position.

Still, the Tyrone offensive line is coming off quite the performance in last week’s district championship, dominating up front to lead running back Aleic Hunter for over 300 yards.

But unlike last week, Tyrone will likely need to employ its passing game to be fully effective on offense.

Against Mount Union, the Golden Eagles were perfectly content with simply pounding the ball on the ground. In fact, quarterback Garrett Hunter threw only 7 times for 77 yards.  However, it is unlikely that they will be able to ignore the passing game against a very tough Hornet defense this week.

The Golden Eagles and the Hickory Hornets last met in 2011, when the Eagles knocked off the Hornets in the PIAA quarterfinals on their way to finishing as the state runner up.

With only 8 AA teams left in the entire state, it is simply foolish to say that one team cannot beat another. If you are still playing football, you didn’t get here by accident — and any team can beat any team.

Hickory has scored 49 touchdowns this year. Tyrone has scored 69. Hickory has allowed only 114 points this season. Tyrone has allowed 155. As you can see, these are two pretty evenly matched teams.

It will likely come down to the wire this Saturday with two very talented and disciplined programs matching up against each other.

Whatever the outcome, expect a dogfight.