Landslide winner: Maples’ Rush runs away with TD Club title
There was little drama in this year’s Herald-Standard Touchdown Club contest.
Mapletown’s Dylan Rush made sure of that.
With three-time champion Anthony Welsh having graduated from Beth-Center it was expected to be a much closer race in 2016. Rush, however, scored three touchdowns the second week of the season to overtake first-week leader Jonathan Wood of California and never looked back.
The junior running back, who rushed for 1,852 yards to push his career total over 4,000, ended the season with 144 points with Wood finishing second, 50 behind at 94 points.
Rounding out the top five were Carmichaels quarterback Jonathan Christopher with 90, Ringgold tight end Max Maciejewski with 88 and Yough running back Dustin Shoaf with 86.
Rush’s total included 22 touchdowns, two extra-point kicks and five two-point conversions.
What made Rush’s statistics even more impressive was that an injury forced him to miss all but the opening series against Fort Cherry and the Jeannette game entirely.
“Dylan ran for over 1,800 yards even though he missed two games with a badly sprained ankle,” Maples coach George Messich said.
When he did play he was the focus of every defense he faced, but few could slow him down.
“Dylan has that natural ability where he can break a touchdown run anytime from anywhere on the field,” Messich said. “He just has that God-given talent that you can’t coach.”
What makes the 5-foot-9, 175-pound Rush great is more than just sheer talent, however.
“Dylan is nothing but pure muscle because of the weight-lifting he does and his workout regiment,” Messich said. “He works out all year long which is why he can handle the big load we put on him on this team.”
A running back cannot have success without players blocking for him, as Messich pointed out, and Rush had plenty of support.
“The thing with Dylan is to get him past the line of scrimmage and our offensive line did a good job of helping him get to the second and third level of a defense and that’s when he can do incredible things,” Messich said. “His fullback and line did a nice job for him this year and I think they got just as much a feeling of accomplishment as Dylan whenever he made a big run. And if you talk to Dylan, the first thing he would do is give credit to his blocking and his teammates. The season he had was a team effort.”
Rush is an intelligent player as well as a stellar student, according to Messich.
“He has a GPA of 4.2,” Messich said. “He’s a tremendous student and I think that helps him on the football field, too, because he doesn’t make a lot of mental mistakes.”
The Maples finished 5-5 in the regular season, including a 4-3 mark in the Tri-County South which qualified them for the WPIAL playoffs.
The top 10 of the standings included a pair of Belle Vernon players with Nick Hall tying with Mount Pleasant’s Keith Kalp for sixth place (84 points) and Mike Fine tying Ringgold’s Brenden Small for 10th place (68).
In between those players, West Greene freshman sensation Benjamin Watson was eighth with 80 points and Southmoreland’s Ronnie Robinson was ninth with 72.
While Rush was the overall leader and top scorer amount running backs, Christopher led the way for quarterbacks and Maciejewski topped all tight end/wide receivers. Mount Pleasant’s Bradley Tait was a runaway winner as the top scoring kicker with 58 point which put him in a tie for 13th overall.
As for touchdowns, next in line after Rush’s total of 22 were Wood, Shoaf, Hall and Kalp with 14 each. Christopher, Maciejewski and Jackson found the end zone 13 times apiece. Robinson scored 12 TDs, Small had 11 and Fine and Beth-Center’s Dominic Fundy followed with 10 each.
The leaders in field goals were Laurel Highlands’ Cameron Lizza and Tait, both with four. California’s Dustin Mock and Bentworth’s Levin Jordan followed with three apiece.
Tait was the leader in extra-point kicks with 46, followed by Ringgold’s Matthew Cannon (43), Mock (25), Jordan (21) and Charleroi’s Sean Cole (20).
Christopher was tops in two-point conversions with six, followed by Rush, Wood and Maciejewski with five each and Fine with four.