Sep 8, 2017 4 min read

MAPLETOWN – Replicating any opponent’s offense is hard when your roster tops out in the mid-20s when everybody is healthy.

Throw in a few injuries and you will end up with your offensive coordinator running scout-team quarterback and an athletic trainer being his go-to wide receiver in practice.

That’s the situation Mapletown was facing when preparing for the multi-faceted West Greene offense, which has shown it can be successful running or throwing.

The Pioneers didn’t have a lot of trouble doing either Friday night.

Quarterback Zach Pettit scored five touchdowns – three throwing and two rushing – as West Greene defeated Mapletown 42-12 in a Tri-County South Conference game.

Pettit finished 5 of 7 for 123 yards and added another 192 yards on 11 carries as the Maples failed to stop West Greene’s dynamic offense.

The win keeps West Greene (2-0, 3-0) tied for first place in the Tri-County South standings.

“It’s pretty special,” Pettit said about the start to his senior season. “My freshman year we went 1-9. Sophomore year we went 0-9. Last year we went 3-7. To start out the season 3-0 is a pretty big step for us. It gets emotional because we don’t really know how to react because we’ve never been there.”

Also entering uncharted territory was Mapletown senior running back Dylan Rush, who broke the school’s career rushing record with his first carry in the second half. Rush surpassed Derek Bochna’s previous total of 4,793 yards.

A possession later, with 11:53 remaining in the fourth quarter, Rush scored on a three-yard run to eclipse the scoring record, also held by Bochna.

“It’s kind of good just to get it over with,” Rush said about the both feats. “I would have rather gotten the win.”

That echoed the sentiment of Mapletown head coach George Messich.

“As far as records, I didn’t even know he broke the touchdown record,” Messich said. “He deserved both (records) more than anything, but I know Dylan and he would have rather have won the game tonight than break either of those.”

West Greene opened the scoring when Pettit found Nathan Brudnock for a 45-yard touchdown to give the Pioneers a 6-0 lead with 8:02 left in the first quarter.

Rush scored his first touchdown with a six-yard run to tie the score at 6-6.

From that point, it was all West Greene.

Pettit found Brudnock again for an 18-yard touchdown, then added a 57-yard run to give the Pioneers a 22-6 lead with 43 seconds left in the first half.

“They were focusing on Ben (Jackson) again,” said West Greene head coach Rod Huffman. “It just opens the other guys up. We’re very diverse. We have the capability for four or five different guys to score. I’m very proud of the way we played.”

After receiving the opening kickoff in the second half, Mapletown (0-1, 1-2) marched to the West Greene 15-yard line before a Jackson hit forced the Maples to fumble.

The turnover ignited a seven-play drive for the Pioneers, which ended with another Brudnock touchdown as Pettit found him behind the Mapletown defense for a 28-6 lead with 5:06 left in the third quarter.

“I thought we made some major errors on defense,” Messich said. “They did nothing offensively or defensively that surprised us. We have to go back to the drawing board and work on fundamentals. Our defensive backs just need a lot more reps. There were times tonight that I thought we looked like a pretty good football team. There were a lot more times that we made mistakes.”

West Greene, which admitted stopping Rush was nearly impossible, implemented an entirely new defense this week to slow him, according to Pettit.

Rush finished with 112 yards on 27 carries and two touchdowns. He has 4,824 career rushing yards.

Pettit didn’t have to look elsewhere as to where to throw the football, as Brudnock caught every pass he completed.

The Pioneers also got another 70 yards rushing from Jackson, who also blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone to give them a 42-12 lead with 2:27 remaining in the game.

The win snaps West Greene’s four-game losing streak against Mapletown.

“At the beginning of the year, we said that it was how we get out of the chute that will really be how our year is determined,” Huffman said. “He is a good friend of mine and a great coach. Starting the season like this is very satisfying.”