Tri-County South opener
Mapletown backs run wild in win over Geibel Catholic CONNELLSVILLE – Mapletown took about one quarter to get back on track when the Maples visited the Geibel Catholic Saturday afternoon in the Tri-County South conference opener for both teams.
The Maples found their stride and scored 26 points in the second quarter to pull away for a 39-10 win.
Despite a good effort from the Gators, the Maples put to good use what they had to their advantage – size, strength and experience to do what they’re best at, running the football.
Going into the game with freshman quarterback Cory Minnick, Maples coach George Messich took a lot of pressure off the youngster, putting the game into the hands of an experienced crew of running backs that combined to grind out 446 rushing yards.
“We wanted to run the football today. I felt we gave our backs plenty of carries and picked up some good yardage,” Messich said. “I’ve got to give Geibel a lot of credit. They hung in there and battled us. I think they’re starting to get things going in the right direction, but it was a good day for us.”
The Maples (1-0, 2-1 led 7-0 at the end of the first quarter. On their first possession, they started at their 28, and used three plays to get into the end zone on runs of 15 and 48 yards by Brandon Geisel and a nine-yard scoring run by Travis Menear.
From there the Gators were able to play the Maples fairly even the rest of the quarter.
“I saw a few good things from my linemen. They made some good blocks at times,” Gators coach Angelo Dippolito said. “Mapletown is a good football team. They’re the defending conference champions. We still need a lot of work defensively.
“We missed a lot of tackles. We have a lot of kids without much football experience. We’ve just got to keep working every day to get better and come out here and win a football game.”
In the second quarter the Maples got a wakeup call from the coach and pulled themselves together to put 26 points on the board.
On the first play in the quarter, Geisel ripped off a 36-yard scoring run. The kick was missed, leaving the score 13-0. The Gators punted on their next possession, allowing the Maples to take over at the Geibel 42.
Ashley Menear quickly ripped off the first of two scoring runs on the day, upping the score to 19-0.
Geibel (0-1, 0-3) fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and Mapletown recovered at the 50. Nick Popernack ended a five-play drive with a 32-yard scoring run to make the score 27-0.
After the Gators next possession, the Maples took over at their 45. Ashley Menear went ahead for seven to the Gators’ 48, and then went the distance on the next play to increase the Maples’ lead to 33-0.
The Gators got on the board before the half on a 26-yard field goal by Robert Orange who came over from the soccer team to help because of injuries.
“Inexperience is our biggest problem right now,” Dippolito said. “We’ve only got one senior on the field and a bunch of underclassmen with minimal football experience. My starting quarterback didn’t begin playing football until last year. We’ll keep working at it and our young men are going to grow up somewhere along the line and we’ll be fine.”
Mapletown scored its final points in the third quarter on a 14-yard run by Travis Menear., his second of the day. That put the Maples up by more than 35-points, allowing the clock to run because of the “Mercy Rule.”
The Gators were able to get one more score in the fourth quarter when Mick Betler hooked up with Mark Gira on a seven-yard scoring toss.
“Having an experienced backfield takes a lot of pressure off Cory of having to make a play,” Messich said. “We were a little short-handed today because one of my starting linemen, Frank Jeffries didn’t play today. It will be nice to get him back next week to strengthen our line-up.”