The Tyrone Golden Eagle take on the Philipsburg-Osceola Mounties at home this Friday at Gray Field.

Based on records, the game looks like it could be a close fight. Both teams come into the contest at 1-2. Philipsburg started their season strong, beating West Branch 41-16 week one. In week two the Mounties fell to Bald Eagle 32-7. Last week they got steam rolled by Bellefonte 55-7.

By contrast, Tyrone opened their season with two heartbreaking losses against close rivals, falling to Bellwood in overtime and losing to Central on a controversial play in the final seconds of the game.  Last week, Tyrone finally got into the win column beating previously undefeated Bishop Carroll 28-20 on the road.

On paper this game should be a test for the Golden Eagles. Philipsburg is probably the hardest hitting and most determined team that Tyrone has seen so far. They run an identical offence to Bishop Carroll. They like to run the running back out of the backfield. They are not a large team in size team or numbers.

What is Philipsburg’s largest downfall?

Lack of discipline.

Offensively, the Mounties like to run a jet sweep with their small and fast wide receiver. They also like to run verticals and a running back out the backfield. Like Bishop Carroll, they are a very effective passing team, but they are not as balanced as Bishop Carroll and have struggled to run the ball so far this year. Their leading rusher has only 20 carries for 50 yards.

Tyrone will not have to change their defense too much from the schemes they ran last week because of the Mountie’s similarity to the BC offense. Philipsburg runs a zone run, which takes time to develop and leads to cutback lanes. Tyrone has given up some long runs this season so they will all have to flow to the ball and gang tackle.

Philipsburg will most likely try to exploit Tyrone’s defensive weakness by dumping the ball to their running back out of the backfield on short passes and screens.

The Golden Eagles have played hard this season and if they continue to play hard they should come out with a win this week.

Of course, anything can happen and the Eagles need to be ready for a fight.

“We can’t go into this game underestimating them. We need to take every game very serious and play our best,” said Tyrone senior wide receiver Brandon Homan.

Expect to see a close hard fought game.

Prediction: Tyrone-28 Philipsburg- 21