Nov 7, 2002 By Rob Burchianti 5 min read

MAPLETOWN – Mapletown’s football team had very little to play for when it traveled to Cornell for its season finale last Thursday. Incentive must have been hard to come by for the Maples when just about every other WPIAL team was gearing up for the playoffs or one final Friday night encounter.

How easy it could have been for the Maples, with only five seniors on their roster, to simply go through the motions on this lonely night in Coraopolis and wallow in what might have been had a couple of overtime losses to West Greene and Frazier gone the other way.

When the Raiders’ Steve Cellanti scored on a one-yard run to put his team up 13-0 with only 4:27 left in the game, all that was left was for the clock to run out on Mapletown’s season.

Coach George Messich’s squad wasn’t about to take the easy way out, however.

The Maples reached down deep inside themselves and came up with a fantastic finish that gave them a miraculous 14-13 victory.

“The kids hung in there when a lot of kids might have quit,” Messich said. “I mean, down 13-0, on the road, the last game … it would’ve been so easy for them to just want to get the season over with.

“Really, we should’ve been up by at least a couple touchdowns in the first half. We fumbled on the one-yard line; we dropped a halfback option pass. It had to be very discouraging to the players after Cornell scored that second touchdown late in the game. But they sucked it up and showed a lot of heart and determination to come back the way they did.”

Not surprisingly, the Maples’ rally began when the area’s leading quarterback and wide receiver – senior Drew Denham and junior Gerod Buckhalter – hooked up for a 63-yard touchdown pass with 3:56 remaining. Buckhalter, one of the WPIAL’s most versatile players, ran in the two-point conversion to make it 13-8.

“We ran a fade pattern to Buckhalter,” Messich said. “Cornell was double teaming him, as most teams do. He just made a fantastic catch, got free and took it all the way.

“Both of those players have had tremendous years for us. Drew broke the school passing yardage record. And Buckhalter is just a very special player. I’d like to match him up against any other wide receiver in the WPIAL, I don’t care what level. He runs a 4.5 40, he’s got great hands … he has everything you want in a wide receiver.”

Buckhalter caught four passes in the game for 89 yards to up his season totals to 50 receptions for 676 yards and nine touchdowns.

“I’ve seen years where we haven’t thrown the ball 50 times the whole season, let alone have a receiver with 50 catches,” Messich said. “We actually ran him a lot against Cornell, too. Sometimes we line him up as the tailback in the power I.”

Buckhalter carried 19 times for 94 yards against the Raiders.

After Buckhalter’s TD catch, Mapletown went with an onside kick, but Cornell recovered at midfield. The Maples used their last two time outs while their defense forced a three-and-out. Buckhalter called a fair catch on the ensuing punt inside the Mapletown 20 to kill the clock with just under two minutes remaining.

The Maples wasted no time in scoring again, thanks to a little trickery.

Denham fired a pass to Justin Corso near the sideline, and the wide receiver turned and lateraled to senior running back Andy Latusek. The play caught Cornell by surprise and Latusek was able to navigate his way 77 yards for the game-winning touchdown.

“It was a hook-and-lateral play, the same thing we ran against Geibel earlier in the year,” Messich said. “It worked for a touchdown then, too. Andy made a couple nice moves, but one of Cornell’s safeties actually caught him at around the 30. He used a stiff arm to knock the kid to the ground, though, and went the rest of the way.”

The unorthodox pass play gave Denham 1,372 yards passing for the season. He completed eight of 19 throws for 204 yards against Cornell. For the season he connected on 112 of 223 tosses (50 percent) with 15 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Suddenly the Maples were up 14-13 with still 1:39 left on the clock. Mapletown’s defense wouldn’t allow Cornell to bounce back off the deck, however, and forced the Raiders to give the ball up on downs. One kneel by Denham and the Maples had a most improbable victory to end their season at 4-6.

“A couple breaks here and there and we easily could’ve been 6-4 and in the playoffs,” Messich said. “It’s been a frustrating season in that regard. But I think our team learned a valuable lesson that last game.

“It taught the younger kids that you don’t quit, you don’t give up, because anything can happen.”