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Bishop Guilfoyle Academy, which has allowed just seven points in the last three weeks, will travel to Tyrone, which has scored more than 15 points in just one of its five games this season, Friday at 7 p.m.
The matchup doesn't seem like a good time for the Golden Eagles to finally click offensively, but a new offensive system can take time to come together.
"It's no secret we have come out of the gates slow offensively," Tyrone first-year coach Jason Jones said. "Our defense has been on the field a lot. Clint Hurdle with the Pirates used to say shower it off, you got one the next day, and that's kind of our mentality. Our defense has been a strength and our special teams has been a strength. It's a new system both offensively and defensively. When you start the season that way, every game is a battle. We have been battling for the first four weeks."
Tyrone needs only to look across the field at its opponent Friday to see that it's possible to turn things around quickly on offense.
Bishop Guilfoyle Academy leaned heavily on its running game and Keagan Hewitt and the ability of quarterback Justin Wheeler to run out of the pocket early in the season, but the Marauders have become much more balanced in recent weeks.
"We have made some really great strides," BG coach Justin Wheeler said. "Looking at our team now, we're pretty much 50-50 run-pass. That makes us much harder to defend. We still love to run the football, but our receivers are starting to have big games, and Justin is throwing the ball well. I like where we're at offensively."
For Tyrone, throwing the ball had been an expected strength going into the season with a strong-armed quarterback in Ben Walk and receivers like Mason Emigh and Jon Stroup.
"They throw the ball well," Coach Wheeler said. "The quarterback has a cannon, and Mason Emigh is one of the best receivers in the league. He has speed and size. They pose some problems when it comes to the skill positions. We saw them this summer in 7-on-7s, and they definitely have skill. We'll be trying to make sure we don't give up any big plays."
The Golden Eagles beat Westmont Hilltop, 34-7, in Week 2, but haven't had that kind of production offensively in any other week.
Despite that, they enter Friday's game with a 3-2 record after close wins over Bellefonte and Bald Eagle Area.
"There's a bigger picture here, not just this week," Jones said. "Where do we want to go after that? We want to get our defense back to where it was the first four weeks and continue to improve offensively. We still control our own destiny as far as the district goes. I feel confident in our guys going forward."
Tyrone is coming off its worst game of the season, a 37-14 loss to rival Bellwood-Antis in a game it trailed 37-0 at the half.
"I told our guys at halftime that this was our first real test with adversity," Jones said. "When you get smacked in a rivalry game like that pretty severely in the first half, how do you rebound from that? I thought our guys came out in the second half and didn't fold. We wanted to carry that into this week. Our guys have battled."
Meanwhile, even though Bishop Guilfoyle has seemingly reached its full potential since its Week 2 loss to Richland, the 4-1 Marauders still have their eyes on improving.
"In general, I think it's pretty easy for the guys we have," Coach Wheeler said. "We're focused on some big goals. When you have that, you can't wait to get better throughout the season. You have to really push yourself. You work on it every day. Two things happen each day. You get better or you get worse. As a football team, we want to make sure we're getting better each day and having great practices. We are working hard, and the kids love football. That makes a difference."
And the work in practice not only benefits this year's team, but the future squads.
"We're on our young guys to be great at practice as well," Coach Wheeler said. "We want them to give us the best look possible. We want them to beat the varsity guys. We talk about finding the next great stars, and we want kids to make those steps. We have freshmen and sophomores who are doing that right now."