Mikes open season with TCS win
A swarm of Carmichaels defenders bring down Monessen鈥檚 Vaughn Taylor during the first half Friday.
Rob Burchianti | 缅北禁地
Mapletown running back Dylan Rush turns the corner agasint Cornell during the second quarter of their game at Mapletown High School on Friday night. Rush rambled for 318 yards and six touchdowns in the Maples鈥� 42-14 victory and now needs just 82 yards to surpass Derek Bochna and become the school鈥檚 all-time leading rusher.
All five Greene County high school football teams saw action in Week One last Friday as the county went 3-2 on the gridiron.
Carmichaels opened up defense of its Tri-County South Conference title with a 33-15 triumph over Monessen at home.
Nick Mundell ran for 187 yards and scored two touchdowns for the Mikes (1-0, 1-0).
Brennen Pelzer also added a pair of scoring runs, while Kevin Kelly recorded a rushing touchdown. After leading 14-9 at halftime, the Mikes outscored the Greyhounds by 19-6 in the second half.
鈥淎 couple of times we let them (get out), but I thought our kids for the most part did a good job of playing assignment football,鈥� Carmichaels coach Ryan Krull said. 鈥淲e talked to our kids about making them (Monessen) run laterally as long as we possibly could. We told them if you just force that thing to stretch farther that allows our other guys to come up and close the gap down.鈥�
West Greene improved to 2-0 on the season with a 53-7 rout of Avella to open up Tri-County South play.
The Pioneers (2-0, 1-0) started the scoring with an 82-yard touchdown on the opening kickoff by Ben Jackson. Jackson also rushed for 217 yards and three touchdowns.
Zach Pettit continued his strong start to the 2017 campaign with a 61-yard scoring run and a 25-yard touchdown reception from Gavin Scott. Adam Courtwright and Christian Fox also had scoring runs in the win. Austin Geho had nine carries for 86 yards for the Pioneers.
Mapletown evened its record at 1-1 after a 42-14 victory over Cornell last week.
Dylan Rush rumbled for 318 yards and tallied six touchdowns for the Maples (1-1, 0-0). He had scoring runs of 5, 32, 19, 12, 69 and 43 yards, while also adding a conversion run and a two-point pass completion to Kevin Hayes.
Rush now has 4,712 career rushing yards and the senior tailback is just 81 yards behind the school鈥檚 all-time leading rusher Derek Bochna (4,793). He is also one touchdown behind Bochna for the school鈥檚 all-time scoring race as well.
Jefferson-Morgan suffered its first loss as the Rockets fell to non-conference foe Springdale 42-20.
After a scoreless first quarter, the Rockets (1-1, 0-0) fell behind 21-7 at halftime. Springdale totaled three of the final five touchdowns in the second half to secure the win.
Jacob Broadwater had two touchdown passes with a 30-yard toss to DL Garrett in the second quarter and an eight-yard completion to Zach Gamble in the fourth frame. Garrett also added a 90-yard kickoff return to open the scoring in the second half for J-M.
Waynesburg Central suffered an Interstate Conference setback last week with a 55-13 defeat to Mount Pleasant to kick off its regular season.
The Raiders (0-1, 0-1) were paced by 127 yards on 19 rushes and a second-quarter touchdown by Caleb Shriver. Waynesburg鈥檚 other score was a 28-yard touchdown pass to Avery McConville from Dylan Scritchfield.
Waynesburg cut the deficit to 21-13 in the final minute of the second quarter, but the Vikings exploded with a late score before halftime and 27 unanswered points in the second half.
鈥淲e had couple of good drives to start the game,鈥� Waynesburg coach Russ Moore said. 鈥淥nce we got that first touchdown our kids were more relaxed and we made it a one-possession game late in the second quarter. They responded with a score and that killed us. Things snowballed for us in the second half and they took full advantage of it.鈥�
Week Two action is headlined by a county clash and the 缅北禁地 Game of the Week as Mapletown hosts West Greene at 7 p.m.
Make sure to catch all the highlights and postgame interviews with players/coaches of the game at heraldstandard.com.
The game will have three of top five scorers in the 缅北禁地 Touchdown Club Race: defending champion Rush (44 points, first place), Pettit (41 points, third place) and Jackson (30 points, fifth place).
Other Week Two games are Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at Carmichaels, Jefferson-Morgan at Monessen and Waynesburg Central at McGuffey. Kickoff for all three games are at 7 p.m.
The West Greene/Mapletown and Waynesburg/McGuffey games will be broadcast on greenesports.net.
In college football news, Waynesburg University began its 2017 season on the road last Saturday and fell to non-conference foe Muskingum 19-0 in Chris Smithley鈥檚 head coaching debut.
After the teams battled to a 0-0 tie in the opening 15 minutes of play, Muskingum tallied a touchdown in the second quarter, two field goals in the third and a final score in fourth.
Tyrone Perone completed 11 of 36 passes for 95 yards and two interceptions. Austin Wilson was the Yellow Jackets鈥� leading rusher with 28 yards on 10 carries.
Waynesburg hosts Westminster College on Saturday in its home opener. Kickoff is slated for 1:30 p.m. at John F. Wiley Stadium.