Eagles get second chance to corral Mustangs . . . but can they?
Matt Bauer had high hopes for this Exeter football team. He knew he had a core of gamers coming back, led by Ty Yocum and J.R. Strauss, and he wanted to challenge them.
He put Central York — and the best quarterback in the state, Beau Pribula — and Wilson at the front of the schedule.
Two weeks into the season the Eagles were sitting at 2-2 after blowing a 14-point, first-half lead at Hempfield. Hopes of a big playoff run seemed remote.
“I was very disheartened,” Bauer said of the 17-14 loss.
From the ashes of that defeat came the heat has helped fuel the Eagles. They have reached the District 3 Class 5A championship game, where they’ll meet Gov. Mifflin Friday night.
Bauer’s captains — Yocum, Strauss, tackle Sam Orzolek and quarterback Colin Payne — called a players-only meeting to reboot. The Eagles have won seven-of-eight since, including three straight playoff games — a first for the program.
“They took ownership,” Bauer said of his seniors. “I’m very proud of that.”
The Eagles (9-3) are playing their best ball right now, another thing Bauer takes pride in. They blew Manheim Central right off its own field in the district quarterfinals, building a 36-0 halftime lead. They were pretty much unstoppable last week at Cedar Cliff, piling up over 600 total yards in a 42-35 shootout.
“They’re jelling,” Mifflin coach Jeff Lang said of the Eagles. “Their offense is clicking better with the run game. And defensively they’ve been shutting teams down.”
The Eagles earned a rematch against the Mustangs (10-0), the only team to beat them in the last two months. Mifflin has been ranked No. 1 in the state since mid-September and no one is surprised to see them going for a second straight district championship.
“It was inevitable,” Bauer said earlier this week on the Mike Drago Sports Podcast. “It was never a doubt in our minds that they weren’t going to run the table.”
The Mustangs are averaging nearly 50 points and 400 rushing yards a game and winning by an average of five touchdowns.
By their lofty standards they struggled a little last week when they trailed after the first quarter for the first time all season. They led by just four points early in the third quarter before Nick Singleton took over, busting loose for a couple of TDs in what became a 38-13 win.
The first Exeter-Mifflin game was never close. Tyler Minick returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown. Nate Goodman blocked a punt for a safety. Nick Singleton broke off a pair of touchdown runs, the second making it 30-0 in the second quarter.
The lead grew to 40-7 in the third quarter after the third of Singleton’s four TDs. The Mustangs were one score away from another mercy-rule victory, but it didn’t happen. The Eagles showed some life. They put together a couple second-half scoring drives against Mifflin’s No. 1 defense unit. If nothing else they sent a little message of their own.
“We played sloppy (early in the game), but the effort was there,” Bauer said. “Our kids didn’t give up; they kept fighting. We were still swinging away (at the end).”
Exeter will score points but it’s got to find some way to slow down Singleton — even just a little — to have a chance. He has rushed for 687 yards and scored nine TDs against Exeter the past three seasons. Mifflin has put up 110 points and 927 yards over the last two meetings.
“The biggest problem with (stopping) Mifflin is how disciplined they are,” Bauer said. “If you’re not doing your job on one play they can take it the distance on you. (That) offense is so difficult to prepare to try to defend in one week. You don’t see that type of offense, and definitely not that type of physicality (very often). (Then) you put someone like No. 10 (Singleton) in the backfield, that just compounds everything.”
