Two big quarters enough for Mapletown
AVELLA — Mapletown scored in only two quarters but the Maples did enough damage in those periods to defeat Avella 45-16 in a Class A Tri-County South Conference game Friday night.
Mapletown (2-2, 4-3) scored 23 first-quarter points and added 22 more in the third quarter.
Landan Stevenson rushed for 216 yards and four touchdowns on 18 carries. He also intercepted a pass and returned it 26 yards for a third-quarter score. Stevenson, a junior, topped the 1,000-yard mark for the season and now has 3,072 yards for his career.
Stevenson’s TD runs covered 63 yards on the game’s first play from scrimmage, six yards late in the first quarter, and 42 and 29 yards in the third quarter.
After Stevenson’s opening TD, a high snap from center on a punt sent the ball into the Avella end zone and the Eagles’ punter was tackled by Cohen Stout for a safety that made it 9-0 less than two minutes into the game. Stout had a team-high 11 tackles.
Avella (0-4, 0-7) finally got something going offensively in the second quarter and the drive was capped by KJ Rush’s one-yard scoring plunge off left guard to make it 23-8 at halftime.
Mapletown stretched the lead to 45-8 in the third quarter. Avella capped the scoring when Brandon Samol caught a 30-yard TD pass from Rush with 3:53 remaining. Rush was the Eagles’ leading rusher with 82 yards on 21 carries.