Oct 13, 2023 2 min read

ELLSWORTH — Mapletown and Bentworth combined for almost 900 yards of offense before the Maples pulled out a 38-36 win Friday night in a back-and-forth Class A Tri-County South Conference game.

Both teams scored five touchdowns but the difference in the game was that Mapletown converted four two-point conversions, including one with 6:56 remaining.

Mapletown (1-4, 3-5) led 16-7 before Bentworth (1-4, 2-6) rallied for a 22-22 tie at halftime. The Bearcats went ahead 29-22 in the third quarter on a five-yard TD run by quarterback Vitali Daniels, who rushed for 126 yards on 17 carries. He also completed nine of 14 passes for 163 yards and three TDs.

Bentworth stayed in front for only 13 seconds as Mapletown’s A.J. vanata threw a 61-yard touchdown pass to Brock Evans and Evan Griffin ran in the conversion to put the Maples up again, 30-29.

Griffin added a three-yard TD run with 6:56 to play and Vanata tacked on a conversion run that made it 38-29.

Daniels threw a 59-yard TD to Lucas Burt with 5:35 left and the extra-point kick made it a two-point game. Daniels and Burt hooked up for a 26-yard TD in the second quarter.

Daniels also had a nine-yard TD pass to Benjamin Hays with 1:37 left in the first half. Benjamin Luketich opened the scoring with a four-yard run.

In the first half for Mapletown, Griffin had a seven-yard scoring jaunt, Vanta added a six-yard TD run and Evans scampered nine yards to the end zone for a score. Griffin rushed for 134 yards on 16 carries. Vanata was 6-for-7 passing for 141 yards.