Miele

ADAMS TWP — Mars coach Scott Heinauer has seen some good drives from his teams over the years, but Friday's first half against Moon surprised even him.

Excluding the final snap of the first half, the Planets had only two offensive possessions and made the most of them.

They took the opening kickoff and marched 74 yards on 12 plays, capped by an Austin Miele 1-yard run.

On its next possession, Mars went on a 17-play, 75-yard drive that was punctuated by Miele's 8-yard scoring reception from Eric Guzak.

Throw in a Josh Pinkerton interception return for a touchdown three plays later and the Planets took a 21-0 lead en route to a 24-7 victory over the Tigers at Mars Athletic Complex.

"I didn't know that," said Heinauer on the sustained drives, crediting the offensive success to the strong blocking. "(Miele) had some pretty good runs, but I don't recall that many plays on those drives.

"That took a lot of pressure off (junior quarterback Eric Guzak). He's a young quarterback who was thrown in there for the first time."

Miele led the way, finishing the first half with 107 yards on 16 carries and ended with 160 yards on 26 carries.

Miele had eight carries of the 12 plays and 65 yards in the first drive, which included a 20-yarder to start the march.

Moon nearly answered with a score, embarking on a 15-play drive that fizzled when Kevin Randolph sacked Tigers quarterback Brian Flannery on a fourth-and-5 from the Mars 17.

On its next possession, Mars burned eight minutes off the clock. On the 17th play, Guzak found Miele in the end zone with 3:26 before halftime. Chris Karns' second extra point of the night made it 14-0.

"Mars did a good job controlling the line of scrimmage," said Moon coach Jon Miller. "We need to be better up front."

Mars expanded the lead when, on a third-and-7 from the Moon 13, Pinkerton picked off Flannery and ran the ball back 22 yards for another score.

"You can't give up the ball four times," Miller said. "There are mistakes we'll fix like we had tonight, but you can't turn over all that many times and expect to win."

Miller's squad did hang in, thanks to Finnegan, who connected on a 40-yard strike to Vince Colaianni on the ensuing drive, then hooked up for a 25-yard scoring pass between a pair of Mars defenders in the end zone with 19 seconds before halftime.

After Moon recovered a fumble at the Moon 21 midway through the third quarter, the Tigers tried to pull closer and appeared to do so when Mark Piccolo broke free for a 62-yard touchdown run. But a block-in-the-back penalty negated it.

On the next play, Flannery completed a pass to Colaianni. The receiver fumbled and Pinkerton recovered on the Mars 23-yard line to end the threat.

Mars settled for a 24-yard field goal by Karns with 10:48 remaining to close out the scoring.

In his first start, Guzak completed 4-of-9 passes for 49 yards with one touchdown.

"He only threw one bad pass," said Heinauer. "Other than that, he did a nice job. What we need to do is build his confidence and help him."

Notes: Mars finished with 257 yards rushing on 49 carries. ... Piccolo finished with 86 yards on 14 carries. ... Pinkerton caught a second interception while Randolph had two sacks ... Mars plays at Hopewell next Friday.