Mapletown continues dream season after first playoff win in program history

Message after message after message. Every time Mapletown coach George Messich checked his cellphone last weekend, he found himself reading another.

“I can’t even count the number of texts I got,” Messich said.

The messages had a theme to them. They were of the congratulatory sort, praising Messich and his team for pulling off a feat no football team in school history had ever accomplished.

Last Friday, the message Mapletown sent to the rest of the WPIAL was concise — put past history aside, this group of Maples is undefeated for a reason and should not be slept on in these WPIAL Class 1A playoffs.

Mapletown, which previously had been 0-8 in the postseason all time, defeated visiting Leechburg, 41-28, in a first-round game. The fourth-seeded Maples (11-0), who went unbeaten in the regular season for the first time since 1968, will try to win another when they face No. 5 South Side (10-1) in a quarterfinal Friday at Waynesburg High School.

“It felt amazing,” Mapletown senior Landan Stevenson said of the win. “I knew this group was special. To go out and prove everyone wrong felt really good.”

Mapletown, in Greene County, is one of the smallest schools in the league. Stevenson said there are just 47 students in his class, six of whom play football. There are, however, 32 players on the roster, a number Messich said is the largest in his 40 years as coach.

This was a gigantic win for not only Mapletown but also the Tri-County South Conference. While the conference is known for producing running backs with massive rushing numbers, it’s also known for having little success in the playoffs. Mapletown’s win was just the second by a team from the conference in five seasons. Since 2018, conference teams have gone just 2-15 in the playoffs.

“All the other teams from the Tri-County South have been saying we did a good job,” Stevenson said. “We’re always battling it out in the regular season, but we’re always supporting each other.”

Stevenson continues to be the catalyst. The WPIAL’s leading rusher and the top runner in program history has rushed for 2,321 yards and a WPIAL-leading 45 touchdowns. Junior running back A.J. Vanata, who projects to be the bell-cow back next season, has added 716 yards and nine touchdowns. Overall, that rushing attack, fueled by an excellent offensive line, has ripped off 3,615 rushing yards, an average of 328.6 per game.

“Landan does things that you can’t possibly coach,” Messich said. “If you could coach what he does, every school would have one or two.”

Against Leechburg, Stevenson outdueled Braylan Lovelace, a standout running back for the Blue Devils who is headed to Pitt to play linebacker. Stevenson said he “wanted to go out and prove I’m just as good as him, if not better.” All Stevenson did was go out and rush for 290 yards and five touchdowns on 27 carries. Lovelace finished with 41 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries.

Mapletown led, 21-0, before Leechburg scored its first points with 2:54 left in the first half. The Blue Devils eventually pulled within 35-28 after scoring a touchdown with 9:07 left in the game, but Stevenson sealed the win by scoring on a 1-yard touchdown run with 2:09 remaining.

Following the historic win was a lot of celebrating. Messich said many of the players, coaches and parents stayed at the stadium for some time afterward, taking photos and discussing the win.

Messich called it one of the most memorable wins of his coaching career. He is a Mapletown guy through and through. Messich graduated from the school in 1973 before going on to play football at Pitt, where he was a member of Pitt’s national championship team in 1976. Messich and his wife, Linda, are both retired Mapletown teachers. Linda is the school’s athletic director.

“It was just a great feeling,” said Messich, the winningest coach in Greene County history. “I was more happy for the kids and assistant coaches more than myself because they have really worked hard. It’s a great group of kids. It’s fun going to football practice.”

Mapletown, one of just three unbeaten teams in the entire WPIAL, hopes to keep its momentum going against South Side. While Mapletown has the No. 1 scoring offense in Class 1A (46 points per game), South Side has the No. 2 scoring defense (8.3 ppg). The Rams have surrendered more than 15 points just once, that being a 33-16 loss at Laurel on Oct. 14. In three games since, the Rams have allowed a total of 19 points. They beat Tri-County South Conference foe California, 34-3, in the first round. Mapletown won at California, 52-20, on Sept. 30.

“They’re definitely a good team,” said Stevenson, who is just 28 yards away from reaching 6,000 career rushing yards. “They’re more like us. They try to run the ball a lot and throw every once in a while. They’re definitely beatable.”

However that game turns out, there’s no taking away what Mapletown has accomplished already. This history-making bunch will not be forgotten anytime soon.

“It’s definitely been special,” Stevenson said. “It’s been a blast. I couldn’t do it with a better group of kids or a better coaching staff. I couldn’t ask for anything more. I knew that this team was going to be special, but I didn’t expect this.”