Thomas Jefferson uses physical, bruising gameplan to hand Mars' football team its worst loss since 2008
ADAMS TWP — Mars football coach Scott Heinauer stood in the middle of a team huddle, his arms flailing and face flushed.
He mentioned how disappointed he was in his Planets, who had just been pushed around the Mars Athletic Complex in a 48-10 home loss to Thomas Jefferson on a dreary Friday night — the weather the perfect metaphor for Mars' performance.
Heinauer offered an even more stark assessment after the huddle broke.
“We're going to go back to the drawing board and we're going to do what we need to do,” Heinauer said. “This can't happen.”
But it did happen — a 38-point loss. It was the worst loss suffered by the Planets since a 47-7 setback to Blackhawk in the WPIAL quarterfinals in 2008.
One would have to go back to 2004 to find a similar regular-season defeat (50-15 to Laurel).
“We're not happy with our performance. They have a good football team,” Heinauer said. “If we would just do what we're supposed to do — at times we looked good, at other times, nothing happened. When you don't do that, this is what happens.”
Mars (5-2) started out in fine shape, forcing a three-and-out by Thomas Jefferson and taking over at the Jaguars' 38.
The Planets' short drive stalled and they settled for a 33-yard field goal by Caleb Brake for a 3-0 lead.
Then, the wheels fell off.
TJ (6-0) marched 80 yards on 11 plays on its next drive, capped by a 9-yard touchdown pass from Bobby Kelley to Garret Fairman for a 7-3 lead.
Then Jonathan Muelbauer returned a punt 46 yards for a touchdown for the Jags to open up a 14-3 lead — and open the scoring flood gates.
“I think that punt return really changed things,” said Thomas Jefferson coach Bill Cherpak. “They came out and stopped us and put us on our heels a little bit. Then we started to get some easy scores and got some stops.”
Quinton Hill score on runs of 8 and 9 shortly after the punt return TD to give the Jaguars a 28-3 lead.
“We wanted to get up early and make them come from behind,” Cherpak said. “They're not really a come-from-behind team.”
The one bright spot for Mars was a 74-yard touchdown run by Isaiah Johnson that cut the lead to 28-10 late in the second quarter.
Johnson finished with 104 yards rushing, but Mars ended up with just 107 yards of offense in the loss.Mars muffed a punt at the end of the half and Tommy Campbell converted that into points for TJ with a 40-yard field goal with the steady wind at his back to cap a 24-point second quarter for the Jaguars.The Planets managed just 23 yards in the second half and had three turnovers in the game — all costly.“They didn't make a turnover. We made turnovers,” Heinauer said. “Can't happen.”Mars had zero passing yards. Noah Wright dropped back seven times to pass: three incomplete, one intercepted and was sacked three times.Meanwhile, Thomas Jefferson's offense was balanced.Kelley threw for 149 yards. Hill rushed for 154 and Justin Vigna even got in on the act with 83 yards on 11 carries — 10 straight to account for all the yardage on a 72-yard drive to cap the scoring.“We have to turn it up and get ready to go,” Heinauer said. “It's been a long time since we lost like this. We're going back to the drawing board. We're going back to square one and we're going to get after it. That's the way it's gonna be.”
