Trending
By Michael Boytim
mboytim@altoonamirror.com
TYRONE -- Bald Eagle Area was a good snap away from running out the clock on a victory over Tyrone Friday night at Gray Vets Field.
When that didn't work out, the Eagles were a fourth-and-10 stop with 33 seconds left from winning the game.
That didn't happen either.
Even after Tyrone tied the game on Ashton Walk's fourth touchdown pass of the night to Bishop Guilfoyle transfer Trent Adams, with 15.3 seconds left and took the lead in overtime on Seth Hoover's 10-yard touchdown run, BEA coach Jesse Nagle still felt like his team was in control.
But Carnell Noone's fumble on a second-down pitch that was recovered by the Golden Eagles turned out to be the final nail in the coffin that sealed Tyrone's 35-28 overtime win.
"I thought that (bad snap) gave us new life and was the key point," Tyrone coach John Franco said. "We weren't stopping them at that point. That play really turned the momentum. That was a huge play."
The Tyrone win left both teams at 2-2.
"Just a bad snap, that's all there is to it," Nagle said. "He hasn't had a bad snap all year. Inexperienced center and did it in the worst time it could ever happen. It is what it is. It's not on him, because we dropped however many balls, we didn't cover the out when we had two guys assigned to it, so it didn't come down to just one play."
Play of the game: With just 2:25 to play and Tyrone down to two timeouts, Bald Eagle Area had the ball first-and-10 at the BEA 27 with a 28-21 lead when the shotgun snap soared over Eagles quarterback Carson Nagle's head. Nagle outraced a Tyrone defender to recover it for a 16-yard loss. Tyrone called a timeout, and Nagle threw an incomplete shovel pass on second down to stop the clock again before Noone had a 10-yard run on third down. BEA punted after Tyrone's last timeout, and Tyrone got the ball back with 2:03 left on the BEA 48.
Player of the game: Walk had two bad turnovers early, throwing an interception to Blake Houk-Leitzell that was tipped and set up BEA's game-tying score late in the first half and then fumbling to set up BEA's go-ahead score, but he recovered to play his best football late. He ended with 215 yards passing and four touchdown passes, including a 7-yard throw to Adams that sent the game into overtime.
"Last week, we had a hard-fought game against Central and couldn't come up with the big plays," Walk said. "This week, we came up with tons of them."
Unsung hero: Hoover didn't have much running room all night, but he got things going in the fourth quarter and had a 10-yard touchdown run on the first play of overtime. He also caught three passes for 15 yards. He finished with 102 yards on 20 carries.
"I thought our conditioning was really good, and that's why our running game worked in the fourth quarter," Franco said.
Most vital statistic: Carson Nagle, who came into the game with 903 yards passing in three games this season, threw for just 112 yards.
Jesse Nagle on his overtime strategy: "We were going to go for two and win the game. That was the mindset. I'm not sure what happened on the toss. I guess (Noone) just dropped it. It was uncharacteristic for us. We also had two plays we could have easily picked the ball off and let kids catch it."
Adams, who had not played the last two games with a shoulder separation but had nine catches for 106 yards and two touchdowns: "It felt great to be back out there with my teammates tonight and pull through in a great game. It feels great, because I was 0-2 against this team last year. It feels great to flip the script and get a win this year."
Franco: "(Adams) and Eli (Woomer) were our go-to guys on that (tying) drive. They were hot, so we went with the guys that were hot. We made the plays. I'll tell you what, it was one of the best football games that I have been part of in a long time. They are a great program. What a win and what a game."
Notable: Noone finished with a game-high 119 yards rushing on 19 carries and scored two touchdowns (one rushing, one receiving). ... Marshall Martin and Klayten Moore also caught touchdown passes for Tyrone. ... Bald Eagle Area's two fumbles (one on a bad snap and the final play of the game) were its first two fumbles of the season. ... The game marked Tyrone's second overtime win in school history. The first was a 48-42 win over Huntingdon in 2016. ... The Golden Eagles blocked two punts and an extra point.
Records: Bald Eagle Area (2-2); Tyrone (2-2).
Next week: Tyrone travels to rival Bellwood-Antis for the "Backyard Brawl," on Friday and Bald Eagle Area visits Philipsburg-Osceola.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Bald Eagle Area 6 8 7 7 0 -- 28
Tyrone 7 7 0 14 7 -- 35
First Quarter
BEA--Noone 7 run (kick blocked), 7:20.
T--Adams 6 pass from Walk (Novak kick), 4:20.
Second Quarter
T--Moore 9 pass from Walk (Novak kick), 8:40.
BEA--Spackman 8 pass from Nagle (Nagle run), 3:42.
Third Quarter
BEA--Noone 8 pass from Nagle (English kick), 8:06.
Fourth Quarter
T--Martin 6 pass from Walk (Novak kick), 11:14.
BEA--Nagle 5 run (English kick), 5:48.
T--Adams 7 pass from Walk (Novak kick), :15.
Overtime
T--Hoover 10 run (Novak kick), 0:00.
TEAM STATISTICS BEA T
First downs 19 17
Total yards 288 338
Rushes-yards 35-176 26-123
Yards passing 112 215
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 14-23-0 22-39-1
Punts-avg. 5-30.8 1-50
Fumbles-lost 2-1 1-1
Penalties-yards 8-65 4-42
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Bald Eagle Area, Noone 19-119, Nagle 13-59, Taylor 1-12, Cunningham 1-2, TEAM 1-(-16). Tyrone, Hoover 20-102, Walk 6-21.
PASSING--Bald Eagle Area, Nagle 14-23-0-112. Tyrone, Walk 22-37-1-215, TEAM 0-2-0-0.
RECEIVING--Bald Eagle Area, Taylor 5-45, Spackman 4-30, Noone 4-21, Cunningham 1-16. Tyrone, Adams 9-106, Woomer 4-35, Hoover 3-15, Weston 2-25, Moore 2-19, Miller 1-9, Martin 1-6.