Dragons Face Eagles First Week of Playoffs

The seniors on this year’s Central High School football team go into playoffs with almost a full season’s worth of games in the “second season” under their belts. The Scarlet Dragons have played nine postseason games over the previous three years, winning back-to-back District 6 championships in 2020 and 2021.

“We have been there before and we have an idea of what we want to accomplish,” Dragons coach Dave Baker said. “We want to win a third and we see that as a possibility. Other teams, I’m not sure how they see it. Some of their players might just be happy to be there.”

Central opens defense of its championship when it travels to Tyrone on Friday to face Coach John Franco’s second-seeded Golden Eagles in the District 6 Class 3A semifinals. Both teams bring 8-2 marks into the contest.

The Scarlet Dragons will be one of three Cove-area teams opening playoff action on Friday. Northern Bedford will host next-door rival Tussey Mountain in the District 5 Class 1A semifinals, a rematch of last season’s district championship game. Meanwhile, fourth-seeded Juniata Valley entertains fifth-seed Portage in the District 6 Class 1A quarterfinals — that game also is a rematch from 2021 when those teams faced off in the semifinals.

Kickoff at Gray-Veterans Memorial Field will be at 7 p.m. The squads last faced each other in the 2020 district championship game, when Central came away with a 17-14 victory despite losing quarterback Jeff Hoenstine to injury. The Dragons and Golden Eagles return to each other’s regular season schedules next fall as Tyrone joins Central in the Laurel Highlands Conference.

“We’ve played them in all sports growing up. We haven’t played them at all in the last couple of years,” Dragon senior wide receiver-defensive back Eli Lingenfelter said. “It’s nice to get one more game with them because they’ve been our biggest rival (before we left the Mountain League in 2021). We get to go there and play them one last time.”

Central is the third seed in a three-team field, having come up, despite having the same record, 50 points shy in the power rankings to Tyrone, which got a forfeit win over St. Marys last week when the Flying Dutch cancelled the game to focus instead on their District 9 playoffs.

Penn Cambria at 9-1 is the top seed and drew a bye into the championship game, which will presumably be played on Nov. 11 at Altoona’s Mansion Park Stadium, although the district has yet to make an official announcement.

The Dragons, though, also are the hottest team in the bracket, heading into the postseason riding a seven-game winning streak since dropping competitive games to Richland and Penn Cambria back in early September.

Only one of those wins has been by fewer than 21 points.

“I can definitely see a lot of improvement from the beginning of the season. We’ve continued to get better each week,” Hoenstine said. “I think some things are starting to come together right now.”

On paper, this week’s matchup looks to be a test between Hoenstine, Lingenfelter and the Dragons’ pass-happy offense and Tyrone’s stingy defense.

Last year’s Class 3A player of the year, Hoenstine enters the postseason 152 passing yards short of 3,000 this fall. He’s completing 70.4 percent of his throws, 40 of which have gone for touchdowns. He’s only been intercepted once.

In his four-year varsity career, Hoenstine’s thrown for 9.048 yards and 135 touchdowns. As a junior, he set a Pennsylvania record with 57 TD throws.

The Hoenstine-to-Lingenfelter connection has been particularly potent, with the duo connecting 69 times for 1,199 yards and an incredible 21 scores.

By contrast, Tyrone only is allowing 14 points per game. The Eagles have shut out two opponents and held two others to single digits.

“Their defense is set up a little bit different than most. We’ve tried to work our blocking so we can get the assignments correct against them,” Baker said, referring to how Franco likes to put one of the defensive tackles in his four-man front right over the center instead of offset. “Obviously, we are going to pass a lot. We don’t know what they’re going to try to do against our passing patterns, whether they’re going to try to rush a lot or play a lot of guys back in coverage.”

“Their defense is pretty good, so we’ll have to do some things offensively to try to counter that,” Hoenstine said.

The Tyrone offense is fairly balanced. The Eagles like to move receiver Ross Gampe around the formation — he’s caught a team-high 31 passes and seven touchdowns. Just a sophomore, quarterback Ashton Walk has thrown for 1,453 yards.

The Eagles’ run game got a boost late in the season with the return of Brady Ronan from injury. He only has 52 carries this fall, but he’s coming off a 144-yard night in a 41-28 win against Hollidaysburg.

Before the St. Marys forfeit, Tyrone had split its last four contests. The Golden Eagles were eliminated in the semifinals by Penn Cambria at home last season, while Central went on to win the district and play in the PIAA semifinals.

“It’s a different atmosphere when you get out there in a district game,” Lingenfelter said. “The stakes are a lot higher. When you lose a regular season game, your season isn’t always over. You lose a playoff game, your season’s over. You have a lot more to play for. Having been in that situation before calms the nerves. I think overall you play better the more experience you have.”

This article is sponsored by Fox’s Pizza Den in Roaring Spring.

In other first-round playoff games …

Tussey Mountain Titans (4-6) vs.

Northern Bedford Black Panthers (10-0)

Date and time: Friday, 7 p.m.

Site: Panther Community Stadium, Loysburg

Coaches: Tussey Mountain – Tim Lucko; Northern Bedford – Garry Black

Last game: Tussey Mountain – lost to Southern Huntingdon, 58-34; Northern Bedford – defeated Cambria Heights, 37-14

Last meeting: Northern Bedford, 36-14 (Sept. 23)

Series record: Northern Bedford, 47-20-1 (first met in 1960)

Portage Mustangs (6-4) vs.

Juniata Valley Green Hornets (6-4)

Date and time: Friday, 7 p.m.

Site: A.R. Simkins Memorial Field, Alexandria

Coaches: Portage – Marty Slanoc; Juniata Valley – Bill Musser

Last game: Portage – lost to Windber, 31-0; Juniata Valley – defeated Mount Union, 26-22

Last meeting: Juniata Valley, 21-7 (Nov. 19, 2021 in the District 6 Class 1A semifinals)

Series record: Tied, 3-3 (first met in 1975)