Finally in the books: After moving date, changing sites, Bulldogs beat Maples at Carmichaels
CARMICHAELS – That the Week Seven football game between Beth-Center and Mapletown was played at all was a victory for the two schools on Monday night.
On the field, though, it was the Bulldogs who rose up to claim their first win of the season, 46-6, over the Maples in their Tri-County South clash at Coaches Field in Carmichaels.
Teagan Veatch and DeSean Whipkey both rushed for over 100 yards and combined for three touchdowns and Santino Revi had a trio of TD catches as B-C improved to 1-4 in the conference and 1-7 overall.
The game was originally scheduled to be played Friday night at Mapletown but a lack of available officials left Mapletown athletic director Linda Messich scrambling. She first attempted to move the start of the game to 4 p.m. Friday, then tried to reschedule it for Saturday afternoon or night but when all of those arrangements fell through she finally settled on Monday night.
That wasn’t the end of the problems.
On Monday, Mapletown High School and the surrounding area lost all electrical power, forcing Messich to try to find another site hours before the game. Carmichaels agreed to host the game.
“I couldn’t think of anything else that could’ve went wrong,” Beth-Center coach Tony Ruscitto said. “I got a call at 3:30 today telling me we were going to Carmichaels, not Mapletown. Then when we get here we didn’t even have a locker room. We were in what I think was a batting cage room or something.
“The superintendent from Carmichaels was nice about it. He brought us some chairs up because there weren’t any in there. No benches, no lockers, no showers, no bathrooms. It was just horrible.”
George Messich actually recalled one worse scenario in his long career as Mapletown coach.
“Years ago when I had (Brian) Gansor and Derek Bochna and that group, our athletic director Mike Caruso scheduled us a game on Thursday night with Notre Dame down in Clarksburg, West Virginia, then we had Chartiers-Houston at home on Saturday,” Messich recalled. “We played Thursday and Saturday, two games in three days.”
When the game finally got underway, the Bulldogs took control early, scoring touchdowns on three of their first four possessions on their way to building a 30-6 halftime lead.
Veatch put B-C ahead to stay with a 54-yard touchdown run on his team’s first possession with Jonah Sussan running in the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead.
After Beth-Center’s Brody Bebout recovered a Maples fumble, Whipkey ran for 14 yards and then 38 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead.
Mapletown scored its lone touchdown on a six-play, 75-yard drive capped by Ashton Walker’s 5-yard run early in the second quarter to make it 14-6. Big plays in the march were a 42-yard pass from Walker to Colton Spitznogle and a 23-yard run by Carson Vanata.
The Bulldogs pushed the margin back out to two scores when Santino Revi intercepted a Mapletown pass and then, two plays later, hauled in a halfback option pass from Whipkey for a 34-yard touchdown. Veatch ran in the two-point conversion for a 22-6 advantage.
Sussan tossed a 26-yard touchdown pass to Revi with 33 seconds left in the first half and also ran in the two-point conversion to set halftime score at 30-6.
Sussan added a 14-yard touchdown pass followed by a two-point conversion completion, both to Revi, in the third quarter and Whipkey added a 9-yard TD run with Sussan tossing a two-point pass to Daniel Duncan in the fourth quarter to cap the game’s scoring.
Ruscitto was pleased to see his players finally rewarded with a win.
“We’ve had a lot of obstacles to overcome this year,” Ruscitto said. “We’ve had injuries with an average of about three or four starters out every week, plus our quarterback was suspended for three games. Also what people fail to realize is a lot of these kids are 14 years old. Most of our starting lineup is made up of freshmen. We have some sophomores playing but only one junior and we have three seniors that play.
“So it’s been a tough year for us but this team has never given up, they work hard, they’re smart and they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with in the future.”
Veatch had 10 carries for 138 yards and a touchdown and Whipkey added 12 carries for 102 yards and two TDs while also throwing for a score. Revi gathered in three receptions for 64 yards. Sussan completed 4 of 5 passes for 43 yards and two scores.
“Jonah is a three-year starter who’s a great quarterback,” Ruscitto said. “He worked hard all year long, from January through the summer to improve himself as a quarterback.”
Vanata led the Maples with 12 carries for 74 yards.
Like B-C, Mapletown fields a youthful squad.
“We’re banged up pretty darn good and we’re playing a lot of young kids,” Messich said. “Most of the game tonight we had two seniors on the field. But I give our kids credit. They work hard in practice, they try to give you a good effort in the game and they don’t quit. That’s all I can ask.
“Beth-Center had a lot more speed than we had with two or three kids and I think that was the difference. We made some mistakes tonight but I really believe our kids are trying their best. I’ll never give up on them and I hope they never give up on themselves.”