By Corey Snyder
Friday September 2, 2011 was the night of the big game. A season within a season.
The Backyard Brawl aired two of the top football teams in the area: the Bellwood Blue Devils and the Tyrone Golden Eagles. The game started with an electric drive by senior Christian Getz that was only to be stood up by the Bellwood defense and held the Eagles to a field goal by Tyrone’s kicker J.D. Dorminy, senior.
Bellwood’s offense came out firing. They drove down the field and plunged in on a first and goal on the one-yard line by Tanner Snyder for a Bellwood touchdown.
Tyrone took the ball after the kickoff and took right down the field in the second quarter to become a Getz touchdown, making it 10-6 at the half. This would be the score until one of the bigger defensive plays in the fourth quarter made by Tyrone’s senior defensive back Nick Patton.
Bellwood’s Quarterback Ryan Stuby dropped back and throws behind the wide receiver right into Patton’s hands to give Tyrone the ball with just over six minutes left in the game. Then just two plays later after Bellwood’s defense makes a big stop on 1st and 10, Tyrone’s Quarterback Steve Franco hooks up with Tight End Corey Snyder for a 16 yard touchdown to ice the victory for the Tyrone Golden Eagles 17-6.
The Eagles were able to get to this point by a rigorous pre-season and off-season program.
After loosing to Forest Hills for the second year in a row at Mansion Park in the District 5-6 AA championship game in 2010 the Tyrone Golden Eagles look to bounce back in 2011 to make another run for the title.
The Eagles are returning seven starters on offense and six starters on defense from the previous season. Tyrone lost mainly their big guys up front. The Eagles had to replace tackles Jared Templeton and Walter Russel, tight end Ian Murray, and guard Kyle Ripka.
The start of the 2011 football season started in November after losing to Forest Hills in the game. The team hit the weights hard with a new lifting program. The lifting wasn’t mandatory during the months of February- June, but, “there was a good turn out” Tyrone’s Senior JD Dorminy said. Mandatory lifting otherwise known as summer lifting started the day after school left out. Golden Eagles program requires that players get at least 20 points by the end of the summer lifting program, this means students have to come to the workouts and sign in and sign out to receive the points.
Head Coach John Franco holds a two week conditioning camp in the month of August. “It’s my last one, so I didn’t really think about it and I just got through it,” Dorminy said.
The Eagles go through this to not only get into shape and beating teams in the fourth quarter, but to get ready for the season opener against the Blue Devils of Bellwood.
3-a-days, something that high school football teams drag on about. “3-a-days can really get to you they are more mentally tough then physically tough, because we practice 8 hours out of the day” Dorminy said.
Maybe one of the most important times of 3-a-days is that the team gets to go to the Bull-Pen and chow down on some grub during lunch break Dorminy said. Tyrone’s players love going to the Bull-Pen to eat because they say it refuels there body for that evening practice that runs from 3:30 till 6.
After those four days of mental toughness workout is over, the Golden Eagles start getting prepared for the Bellwood Blue Devils. Tyrone goes through a week of 1-a-days by coming in at 11 to lift then going back to the Bull-Pen to eat. Then the Eagles come back for that evening practice that is focused on execution.
August 20, 2011 was the first official showing of the Golden Eagles as they travel down to Central Cambria for a scrimmage. The starters only got 5 plays, but those 5 plays were efficient to say the least. Tyrone’s senior running back Chris Getz takes the very first play from scrimmage 40 yards for a touchdown. “I feel that with those five plays all we could do is see how it would go, and I feel as we did pretty well,” Dorminy said. Even though they don’t keep score in these scrimmages, the Golden Eagles overpowered in those first 5 plays and showed great determination.
Last season the Golden Eagles of Tyrone went down to Chestnut Ridge for their second scrimmage of the year. They got pounded and were just attacked and driven over. So the Tyrone Golden Eagles had to make a better appearance this year at home against Chestnut Ridge on August 26. “This performance was a lot better than last year. It showed that we could move the ball and finish drives,” Dorminy said.
School is coming around and the Tyrone Golden Eagles are getting prepared for the Bellwood-Antis Blue Devils. The players are going to have to get used to practicing after school again and get back in the swing of things. School always isn’t a bad thing says senior fullback JD Dorminy. “It means football season, and the Backyard Brawl.”
The Thursday before the Bellwood game Head Coach John Franco has this meeting that the team goes over two very specific charts that help them win the game. They are the way to win the kicking game, and the winnings things chart to how to win the game. The team relies on number 5 of the winnings things chart which Coach Franco highlights every Thursday. This is what is going to win the game for us if everything else fails Coach Franco Said. “Team Toughness Tyrone!”
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