Doing it all: Maples’ Stevenson pulls off rare scoring feat
Just when you thought Landan Stevenson had done just about everything he possibly could for Mapletown鈥檚 undefeated football team this season he managed to top himself on Friday night.
The senior running back pulled off a rare feat in the Maples鈥� 52-20 win at California.
Stevenson scored points using four different methods, running for four touchdowns, kicking a field goal, booting three extra points and rushing for a two-point conversion.
Not only that but Stevenson also threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Brock Evans and completed a two-point conversion toss to A.J. Vanata.
When the smoke had cleared Stevenson had rushed for 251 yards, scored 32 points and had a hand in 40 of the Maples鈥� points.
Mapletown coach George Messich has been watching Stevenson play for four years now and still sees things from his star player each week that startle him.
鈥淗e has a lot of God-given gifts and he keeps making plays that just amaze us,鈥� Messich said. 鈥淚t takes more than just natural talent to do what he does, though.
鈥淚鈥檝e said it all along, anytime you give Landan a responsibility with the football he鈥檚 going to put a 100-percent effort into whatever it is and try to do it right.鈥�
Stevenson鈥檚 touchdown runs were of 9, 1, 40 and 2 yards, and his field goal was a 34-yarder.
The Herculean effort against the Trojans pushed Stevenson鈥檚 lead in the 缅北禁地 Touchdown Club to 51 points after Week 5鈥檚 games with a total of 165.
Stevenson is trying to become just the third player to repeat as Touchdown Club champion since the award began in 2005. The others were Beth-Center鈥檚 Anthony Welsh who finished as the area鈥檚 leading scorer three times in a row (2013-15) and West Greene鈥檚 Benjamin Jackson who was first in 2018 and 鈥�19.
Mapletown is 6-0 heading into Week 6, which actually kicks off tonight with one local game as Frazier (0-3, 0-6) hosts Greensburg Central Catholic (2-0, 4-2) in an Eastern Conference game at 7 p.m.
West Greene鈥檚 Colin Brady scored two touchdowns in the Pioneers鈥�62-25 loss at Monessen and is in second place in the TD Club with 114 points.
Mount Pleasant鈥檚 Robbie Labuda became the third area player to hit the century mark this season with two touchdowns and a two-point conversion in the Vikings鈥� 45-28 win over Greensburg Salem to up his total to 106.
Labuda鈥檚 teammate Lane Golkosky was one of three local players to score four touchdowns as he found the end zone on runs of 4, 43, 13, and 31 for 24 points to move him into a four-way tie for ninth place with 48.
Rounding out the top five are California鈥檚 Spencer Petrucci (80) and Elizabeth Forward鈥檚 Zach Boyd (78).
Monessen鈥檚 Daevon Burke and Tyvaughn Kershaw both had outstanding games in the Greyhounds鈥� win over West Greene and are in sixth and seventh place with 76 and 64 points, respectively.
Burke had three explosive touchdowns with runs of 89 and 59 yards and a kickoff return of 77 yards to go along with a pair of two-point conversions for 22 points. Burke now has three kickoff returns for TDs this season.
Kershaw had touchdown runs of 20, 41, 50 and 22 yards along with three two-point conversion runs in ringing up 30 points.
California鈥檚 Jake Layhue is in eighth place in the Touchdown Club standings with 52 points. Joining Golkosky in the tie for ninth are Bentworth鈥檚 Vitali Daniels and Benjamin Hays and Belle Vernon NCAA Division-I recruit Quinton Martin, who scored 18 points on runs of 3, 79 and 16 yards in the Leopards鈥� 56-0 win over South Allegheny.
Hays returned a fumble 70 yards for a touchdown and caught scoring passes of 25 and 67 yards from Daniels for 18 points in the Bearcats鈥� 28-25 loss to Jefferson-Morgan.
Two other area players 鈥� Jordan Wilmore and Billy White 鈥� had three-touchdown, 18-point performances in Week 5.
Wilmore found the end zone on runs of 11, 11 and 5 yards in unbeaten Elizabeth Forward鈥檚 42-6 win at Southmoreland.
White sparked Carmichaels in its 35-8 win at Beth-Center with a 1-yard touchdown run and two returns for scores. White took an interception back 38 yards and returned a punt 70 yards.