Maples continue playoff push with win at J-M
JEFFERSON — Landan Stevenson has racked up plenty of individual accomplishments during his football career at Mapletown but there is one team goal that has eluded him.
The Maples and their star junior running back took a big step towards rectifying that on Friday night.
Stevenson rushed for 143 yards and three touchdowns and also made 11 tackles as Mapletown defeated Greene County rival Jefferson-Morgan, 43-12, at Parker Field to move one step closer to clinching a WPIAL playoff spot in the Tri-County South.
“You set goals every year and we had two main ones for this year,” Mapletown coach George Messich said. “One was to make the playoffs and the other was to have a winning season.”
The Maples are one step away from securing both of those.
Mapletown (3-2, 5-3) sits in fourth place in the conference, one game ahead of Monessen and two games in front of Bentworth, Avella and J-M with two games to play. The top five teams qualify for the postseason.
The Maples can clinch a playoff spot with a win in one of their final two games (at Bentworth or vs. West Greene) or a loss by Bentworth in one of its final two games (the Bearcats finish at California) or two closing losses by Monessen (vs. California and at Avella).
Mapletown gradually wore down the Rockets (1-4, 1-7) in claiming its third straight win with Stevenson receiving plenty of support from his teammates.
The Maples rushed for 268 yards and Max Vanata threw two touchdown passes, ran for a score and set up his team’s first TD with a long interception return as Mapletown’s defense forced four turnovers.
“Our offense did a really good job tonight and I was really pleased with the way our defense played,” Maples coach George Messich said. “I just thought it was a great overall game by our kids.
“Landan did what he always does, he’s just such a talented kid, and Max played a great game today, too.”
Jefferson-Morgan’s defense was stout early on.
“The kids were prepared for it,” J-M coach Brent Baker said of stopping Stevenson and the Maples’ vaunted ground game. “Their initial drive, we filled gaps, we ran the alley, stopped them, and got a turnover on downs.”
Vanata spoiled the Rockets’ first drive when he made a shoe-top interception of a pass by Cole Jones that’s was tipped by Brody Evans and returned it 53 yards to the J-M 1. Vanata scored on the next play to put the Maples up 6-0 with 4:23 left in the first quarter.
Cole fired right back with a 62-yard pass to Johnny Gilbert with Stevenson making a touchdown-saving tackle at the Mapletown 30. The Maples defense held tough, forcing a turnover on downs.
With J-M focusing on stopping Stevenson, Mapletown got a 31-yard run by A.J. Vanata and a 13-yard run by Clay Menear to advance deep into Rockets territory.
“Everyone knows we rely a lot on Landan, but we have other players who can run the ball,” Messich pointed out. “Clay has had some real nice runs on that counter play this year,” Messich said. “A.J. is only a sophomore, he’s a power back and he ran well tonight. Max had a couple good runs, too.”
Stevenson capped the drive by following A.J. Vanata into the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown run. Stevenson kicked the extra point to make it 13-0 with 11 minutes left in the second quarter.
Jefferson-Morgan had a golden opportunity to get on the board with 7:23 left in the half when Nick Reha recovered a fumble at the Mapletown 17 but the Maples’ defense again stiffened as Roger Gradek knocked away a fourth-down pass by Jones intended for Gilbert.
The Rockets kept battling, forcing a punt and then converting a gutsy fourth-and-9 play from their own 30 when Jones scrambled ahead for an 11-yard gain.
The momentum turned shortly after when Stevenson knocked the ball loose while sacking Jones with Levi Howard picking up the football and advancing it inside the J-M 10. That set up an 8-yard touchdown run by Stevenson with 1:07 left in the half, and his two-point conversion run put the Maples ahead 21-0.
After the first of two interceptions by Evan Griffin, Mapletown went up 27-0 with 6:46 left in the third quarter on a spectacular fourth-and-16 play from the J-M 22. Max Vanata scrambled forward and got off a pass in traffic to Evans who made the catch and fought his way through J-M’s secondary into the end zone to make it 27-0.
One highlight for the Rockets was Jones going over the 1,000-yard passing mark for the season but he was forced to leave after re-injuring his knee with 5:37 remaining in the third quarter. The junior quarterback completed 7 of 20 passes for 107 yards in the face of a furious Mapletown pass rush.
“Cole has been fighting this injury since the second quarter against Leechburg, which was our opening game,” Baker explained. “In all my years of coaching he’s one of the toughest players I’ve ever had. His knee gets aggravated and we do the best we can to manage it. Our athletic therapist is great and Cole works diligently in treatment to get back out there but at times it’s just too much.”
Gilbert took over quarterback duties for the Rockets and did an admirable job filling in. He got J-M on the board with 4:41 left in the third quarter on a 32-yard touchdown pass to a high-leaping Ewing Jamison.
The Maples answered almost immediately with Stevenson exploding for a 65-yard touchdown run just 16 seconds later to all but put the game away. Max Vanata’s two-point conversion pass to A.J. Vanata made it 35-6.
“I give Jefferson credit. They came out and played hard, especially at the beginning of the game,” Messich said. “But our team just keeps plugging away. Landan is a prime example. I don’t care who we’re playing, before the game’s over he’s breaking a long touchdown run.”
Max Vanata, who completed 3 of 7 passes for 51 yards, tossed a 7-yard touchdown pass to Evans with 8:35 left in the game to put the Maples in front 43-6.
Gilbert capped the scoring with an 11-yard TD pass to Colt Fowler with 2:30 remaining.
Gilbert, a freshman, played a strong all-around game for the Rockets with 41 yards rushing and four receptions for 69 yards in addition to his two TD tosses.
“We’re a very young team,” Baker said. “We have four or five, sometimes six freshmen at times out there. Our offensive line is four sophomores and one junior.”
Menear was the Maples’ second-leading rusher with three carries for 61 yards. A.J. Vanata had 37 yards on four attempts and one catch for 22 yards. Max Vanata ran five times for 26 yards.
Messich lauded his coaching staff for its preparation.
“I give our assistant coaches a ton of credit,” he said. “They did such a good job with our offensive and defensive planning. I was really concerned because I watched Jefferson a lot on film and they throw and throw and throw. Andrew Vanata is our defensive coordinator and he came up with a great game plan to slow down their passing attack.”
Baker is confident his team is headed in the right direction.
“We want to continue our maturation and continue to be positive,” Baker said. “The only thing we can control are effort, energy and attitude in our play. When they start to grasp that and are completely in on that, then we’ll have solidified a team and a program.”