Tyrone brings home the gold!

By Corey Snyder

Tyrone football took their next step to Hershey on Friday night at Mansion Park by defeating Richland 46-21, winning the schools 8th District title all under head boss John Franco.

The first quarter started out rather rough for the Golden Eagles when Tyrone couldn’t recover Richland’s kickoff and the Rams jumped on it at the 2-yard line. It didn’t take long for them to punch it in when Luke Rozich took the handoff and ran it in for the first score of the game with just 11 seconds elapsing off the clock.

After Tyrone and Richland both exchanged punts, Tyrone took their next drive down the field. Steve Franco then found Senior Nick Patton for a 35-yard touchdown, but the kick was missed after the score so the Eagles were still trailing 7-6 with 5:28 left in the first quarter.

Tyrone had also established a running game when senior Chris Getz scored on a 4-yard run to give Tyrone the lead late in the first quarter.

Franco helped the Eagles out when he called his own number from 2-yards out.

Richland’s offense was driving down the field late in the second quarter trying to put up a second score of the night.

Patton had a huge night coming through with three touchdown catches for 132-yards and an 87-yard kickoff return for a touchdown that shutdown any momentum that the Rams were trying to get back.

“Last year, I didn’t even make it to the game because I was sick. We came in with the attitude this year we wouldn’t be satisfied until we walked off this field carrying the trophy,” Patton said.

The defense of the Tyrone Golden Eagles had a plus 1 turnover ratio that helped the Eagles hold Richland’s high powered offense behind senior John Rizzo to 21 points. Richland’s offense was averaging almost 40 points a game.

“It feels great winning a district championship game. I loved the feeling and the atmosphere of the whole game. The crowd was really into it and enhanced our energy,” Ben Makdad said.

Patton added another touchdown to his stats after his interception that gave the ball to the Eagles at the 20-yard line.

Franco rolled out to his left and found Patton a 13-yard hook up to take the score to 40-14.

Tyrone only gave up one more score to the Rams and it came on a big play from the Rams Quarterback Matt Shaffer when he found Zach Hanely for an 85-yard touchdown in the third quarter.

In the fourth it was a defensive battle with Tyrone putting up the only touchdown. Getz took the handoff and did the rest running it in from 11-yards out.

Head coach John Franco won his eighth district championship with the Golden Eagles. Tyrone advances to the PIAA state quarter-finals next Friday December 2, 2011 against Hickory at 7 o’ clock.