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Huntingdon, Tyrone clash with playoffs on line

Tyrone’s annual football game with Huntingdon is one of the biggest rivalry matchups of the season for both programs.

That rivalry game takes on an added dimension tonight, as the winner gets the inside track at the fourth and final playoff spot in the District 6 Class 3A field.

Tyrone and Huntingdon are both 4-5 entering tonight’s 7 p.m. Mountain League matchup at Tyrone’s Gray-Vets Memorial Field.

Penn Cambria, also 4-5, is also in the Class 3A playoff chase, but the Panthers need to pull off an upset in their regular-season finale tonight at Forest Hills to keep their playoff hopes alive.

“The Huntingdon game has always been a rivalry game for us, and this year, it’s kind of different being in Week 10, with the playoffs on the line,” Tyrone coach Jason Wilson said. “I think that’s going to add a lot more to it.

“Everybody knows that if we want to make (the playoffs), we’ve got to win,” Wilson said. “It’s a do-or-die situation.”

Tyrone started off the season with four straight victories, but the Golden Eagles have dropped their last five games. Wilson said that his team was competitive in a 28-13 loss to Hollidaysburg two weeks ago and a 13-7 loss at Penns Valley last week.

Cutting down on mistakes, however, will be important for Tyrone, which was penalized eight times for 75 yards last week.

“Penalties have been a big downfall for us in the last couple of weeks,” Wilson said. “We’ve got to clean up the penalties and eliminate any turnovers.

“We have to get our offense moving — it’s kind of been in a drought the last few weeks,” Wilson added. “We’ve had some red-zone chances that we haven’t capitalized on. We have to put the ball in the end zone if we want to have any chance of being successful.”

Huntingdon did a good job of putting the ball in the end zone last week in a 52-18 victory over Central. Senior quarterback Andrew Hudy rushed for 148 yards on 15 carries and two touchdowns, while throwing for 193 yards and four touchdowns on 12 pass completions in 22 attempts, including three touchdown passes to junior wideout Andrew Miller.

“As a team, we’re young, and we’re still a work in progress, but our intensity level was up, and we played a full game last week,” Huntingdon coach Mike Hudy said.

Mike Hudy isn’t focusing on the playoffs as much as he is focusing on tonight’s game.

“The kids were talking about (the playoffs), it’s on their minds, but I tell them to take one game at a time,” Coach Hudy said. “We don’t know (anything) for sure (about the playoffs), nor do I worry about it. I don’t even go there with those guys. I just want to win this game. We have to play a full game.”

Wilson sees Huntingdon as a big challenge.

“They’re definitely a good team,” Wilson said. “(Andrew Hudy) gives them a run-pass option. He’s a bigger kid who can run downhill. We’ve got to be able to tackle well. They have a real aggressive defense that can really shut you down. They’re pretty good all-around on defense.”

Tyrone’s offense is led by senior quarterback Denver Light, who recently announced that he’ll attend Penn State as a preferred walk-on linebacker recruit. Light has completed 79 of 156 passes for 1,056 yards and 11 touchdowns this season.

His leading receivers are sophomore Damon Gripp (24 catches for 372 yards and 3 touchdowns), and sophomore Tommy Hicks (24 catches for 348 yards and 6 touchdowns). Senior Cory Lehman has 20 receptions for 299 yards and a touchdown, and senior running back Zac Albright has rushed for 817 yards on 166 carries (a 4.9 yards-per-carry average) and 7 touchdowns.

Tyrone has lost five in a row after starting 4-0, but it hasn’t been due to a lack of effort, according to Wilson.

“We’ve lost five in a row, but we’ve played some really tough (opponents) in the last few weeks,” Wilson said. “In the last two weeks, we’ve played pretty well, but we just haven’t come out on the right side of things. Our intensity is where it was at the beginning of the year. We just have to clean up the mistakes.”

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