The Golden Eagles will play in their first district championship since the 2020 covid shortened season. They have not won a district championship since 2014 when then-senior Aleic Hunter ran rampart on the Mount Union Trojans as he ran for 304 yards and five touchdowns.
They will face the Penn Cambria Panthers at Mansion Park in Altoona. The Panthers are currently 11-0 and ranked 7th in the state for AAA.
This will be the Panthers’ fourth consecutive 3A District 6 championship. They have lost to Central the past three years.
The Golden Eagles faced the Panthers last season in the class 3A district semi-finals in a game where they went up 21-6 in the first quarter and were up 28-18 at the beginning of the fourth as special teams and other factors allowed them to come back and score a touchdown with 32 seconds left to make the final score 32-28 Penn Cambria.
Senior Gavin Harrold, who scored the game-winning touchdown against Tyrone last season, is the vocal point of the Panther’s offense. He will get the ball in multiple ways. Harrold will line up as the wildcat quarterback, at running back, and will spilt out at wide receiver.
Harrold leads the team in rushing touchdowns as he has reached the endzone 16 times and has ran for 573 yards.
The Panthers don’t want to pass the ball much, as they have 142 passing attempts and 438 rushing attempts. Even though they haven’t passed the ball much, Harrold still has 769 yards on 53 receptions and nine touchdowns.
Penn Cambria is extremely efficient at running the ball. In their first-round playoff game against Central, they had three players go over 100 rushing yards. These players include seniors Gavin Harrold, Mason Mento, and Thomas Plunkett.
Plunkett leads the backs in carries with 147 as he rushed for 898 yards and seven touchdowns, following him is quarterback Brady Jones with 118 carries for 591 yards and seven touchdowns. Mento has 71 carries for 510 yards and seven touchdowns.
The Golden Eagles must control the run and play as well as they did last week against Forest Hills. Tyrone held them to 182 total yards, 139 of those were rushing yards and 43 yards of passing yards. They also were able to get two interceptions from senior Trent Adams an interception return for a touchdown from Ashton Emigh and were able to recover two more fumble recoveries.
Senior Seth Hoover took over the game with 250 yards and four touchdowns, breaking the 1,000-yard mark for the season.
Quarterback Ashon Walk also has the chance to become Tyrone’s first 3,000-yard single-season passer, he currently has 2,803 yards.
