Stevenson tops 5,000 as Mapletown stays unbeaten
JEFFERSON — Landan Stevenson and the Mapletown Maples played spoiler on the Jefferson-Morgan homecoming, beating the Rockets 49-12 Friday night in a Class A Tri-County South Conference game at Parker Field.
The victory combined with Monessen’s 40-36 loss at Carmichaels leaves the unbeaten Maples alone in first place.
“Every time two Greene County schools get to play each other, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Mapletown coach George Messich said. “It’s always a good game and teams always play their best against each other.”
Stevenson led the way for Mapletown (4-0, 7-0), with 314 rushing yards and four touchdowns on a season-high 35 carries. In total, the Maples had 470 rushing yards, most coming from Stevenson and AJ Vanata. Mapletown finished with 515 yards of total offense.
Stevenson scored on runs of three, 34, six and eight yards. Vanata, who rushed for 129 yards, had TD runs of eight and 12 yards and quarterback Brody Evans had one scoring run.
“I just think that’s incredible,” Messich said. “Our running backs run really hard, and I am so pleased with our offensive line.”
Mapletown dominated Jefferson-Morgan (2-2, 4-3) in the first half.
Stevenson’s first touchdown run put the Maples ahead 7-0 with 1:50 left in the first quarter. Jefferson-Morgan responded with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Cole Jones to Jase Bedilion to make it 7-6 with 18 seconds remaining.
The Maples scored 24 points on three touchdowns and three converted two-point attempts in the second quarter for a 31-6 halftime lead.
Stevenson, who now has 5,084 career yards, had a full game’s worth of stats in just the first half: 20 carries, 192 yards and three touchdowns. He also made an extra point attempt and converted two of the two-point conversions. Evans and Evan Griffin had the other two-point runs.
The second half was much like the first. The Maples steadily pulled away and forced two turnovers-on-downs by the Rockets in the fourth quarter to secure the win.
“They outplayed us,” Jefferson-Morgan first-year coach Shane Ziats said. “They were better than us on those downs.”
After Stevenson’s 8-yard TD run midway through the third quarter, John Woodward accounted for J-M’s second touchdown with a 12-yard run. Vanata added his two touchdown runs in the fourth quarter.
Jones completed 8 of 18 passes for 124 yards with five of those going to Houston Guesman for 98 yards.
Mapletown faces Bentworth next week followed by Monessen and West Greene.
Jefferson-Morgan is at Monessen next weekend before returning home to play West Greene.