ADAMS TWP — Austin Miele stood on the Mars sideline, an ice pack strapped to his aching hamstring.

The junior watched as a committee of Planets running backs filled in for him quite nicely, helping the Mars football team to a 17-0 home win over Trinity in the first round of the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs Friday.

Kevin Randolph rushed for 88 yards on 12 carries, Randy Seebacher tallied 67 yards on six carries and Ben Bair picked up 50 yards on 10 attempts as the Planets didn't miss a beat with their leading rusher sidelined.

"Those guys did a nice job when they got in the game," said Mars coach Scott Heinauer. "We rely on that Wing-T offense. There is a lot of deception and it's gotten us where we need to be right now."

The defense wasn't too shabby, either.

With an offense that controlled the football and the clock, the Planets' defense stifled the Hillers at every turn. Trinity (4-6) notched two first downs in the first half and ran 16 plays.

But Mars didn't crack the scoreboard until the final play of the first half when Seth Geyer plowed into the end zone from inside the 1 as the clock hit 0:00.

Geyer's run capped a 15-play, 76-yard drive that consumed nearly five minutes. The score also sent the Hillers into the locker room on a downer.

"We lined up wrong based on their formation," said Trinity coach Ed Dalton, shrugging.

The Planets' defense was just as stingy in the second half. Trinity managed just 97 yards rushing on 28 carries in the game.

The passing game also was virtually non-existent for the Hillers. Trinity quarterback Andrew Steratore threw interceptions on his first two pass attempts and finished with 43 yards on 4-of-9 passing.

Mars' game plan was simple: put the run-heavy Hillers in third-and-long situations and out of their comfort zone.

"We feel we have a good defense," Heinauer said. "We made a lot of mistakes offensively, but we felt if we moved the ball, it would get our defense excited. The last couple of games we've had our backs against the wall and our defense has had to get us out, and, fortunately, our defense got us out again."

Mars (7-3) had other opportunities to score, but fumbles killed two potential scoring drives inside the Trinity 10.

The Planets fumbled four times and lost three, struggling at times with handoffs from quarterback D.J. Delucia to his backs — something that perplexed Heinauer.

"We're upset about that," Heinauer said. "You can't make those mistakes. This is the first time all year we've had a problem fumbling the football. We just don't do that. We made a lot of mistakes. Fortunately we have another week."

Bair scored on a 2-yard run early in the fourth quarter to give the Planets some breathing room and Christopher Karns tacked on a 27-yard field goal with 1:21 remaining in the game for good measure.

For Trinity, the breakdowns on defense were numerous.

"We couldn't defend the jet sweep," Dalton said. "It's not like we don't see that every friggin' week.

"Neither team is going to win many playoff games playing the way they did tonight. They must have put the ball on the ground five times and we couldn't do anything with it," he added

To add insult to the injury of the loss, Trinity had a touchdown pass wiped out in the fourth quarter by an illegal chop block penalty.

If the TD had stood, the Mars lead would have been slashed to 14-7.

Mars will play Hopewell in the second round next week. Heinauer said he believes Miele will be ready for that matchup. If not, there are a stable of backs to fill in.

"It's not as bad as last week," Heinauer said. "We just didn't want him to make it worse and get hurt more. We just have to make sure he is ready to play for next week."