Exeter’s season finished after second-half collapse in District 3 opener
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Sam Cavalieri — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
HERSHEY — Matt Bauer wore the pain and disappointment on his face.
His Exeter players did, too.
They let a 21-point second-half lead slip away in a 28-27 loss to Hershey 00Friday in a District 3 Class 5A opener at Hersheypark Stadium.
The ninth-seeded Eagles (8-3) led 21-0 at halftime after a spectacular first half by Jayden Zandier, who ran for 222 yards in the game, and Carter Redding, who hauled in two touchdowns from Riley Martinez.
Exeter appeared to have stymied any second-half comeback efforts from the eighth-seeded Trojans (8-3) when Zandier raced 69 yards for a touchdown to put the Eagles ahead 27-7 with 3:10 remaining in the third quarter.
The extra point failed after a high snap caused the holder to abandon the kick attempt and try to throw the ball into the end zone for a two-point conversion.
“You can’t do that in November,” Bauer said. “Those are the types of mistakes that end your season.”
The Trojans are a methodical offense built around 225-pound bruiser Angel Cabrera; they aren’t built to make comebacks.
They abandoned the running game in the series following Zandier’s touchdown and Exeter was able to force a three-and-out.
The ensuing the punt was muffed by Nathan Pashley and Hershey recovered at the Exeter 49.
Four plays later they rode Cabrera into the end zone for his second touchdown. Cabrera scored four touchdowns and finished with 37 carries and 173 yards.
“Hats off to them, they are a very physical football team,” Bauer said of the Trojans.
Other than the one-play score by Zandier, Exeter couldn’t score on promising possessions in the second half.
The first, a 10-play drive, ended with an interception in the end zone. Another 10-play drive ended with a turnover on downs deep in Hershey territory. A critical drive while holding onto a 27-21 lead ended on a Jayden Zandier fumble at the Hershey 24.
“We made key mistakes,” Bauer said. “Special teams was definitely the difference tonight. Key fumbles in situations and we didn’t finish drives.”
The fumble by Zandier gave the Trojans the ball back with six minutes left. They put together a 76-yard drive that was keyed by a Cameron Sweeney 34-yard completion to Derek Guzman on third-and-6.
Cabrera surged in from the 1 and Cole Goodman made the deciding PAT.
Sweeney finished with 111 yards, a high total considering he passed for only 704 yards in the regular season. Guzman had 102 yards receiving and 96 yards rushing on only five carries.
Despite all the second-half struggles Exeter had one last chance and got the ball at the 27-yard line with just under 2:30 remaining. The Eagles got an initial first down but Martinez was pressured as he scrambled on first down from his own 40 and was intercepted by Anthony Vazquezi.
“I have to stop forcing the ball,” the sophomore said.
The Eagles finished the game with 426 total yards and only punted once. They had a 200-yard rusher and a 100-yard receiver; still it was not enough.
“We had a lot of mismatches and we could pick apart their defense both passing and running the ball,” Martinez said. “But at the end we couldn’t get the job done.”
Exeter won its first eight games and spent most of its season in the state rankings but dropped its last two regular season games after running off a program record 20-game regular season win streak.
The seniors played for district championships in each of the past two seasons.
“I hate like heck to send these seniors out on this note,” Bauer said. “It just hurts so bad because they have given so much to this program.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Exeter | 0 | 21 | 6 | 0 | 27 |
| Hershey | 0 | 0 | 14 | 14 | 28 |
Scoring summary
| 2 | Exeter | Boston, 2 run (Gaston kick) | 8:17 |
| 2 | Exeter | Redding, 23 pass from Martinez (Gaston kick) | 2:47 |
| 2 | Exeter | Redding, 58 pass from Martinez (Gaston kick) | 1:14 |
| 3 | Hershey | Cabrera, 1 run (Goodman kick) | 3:24 |
| 3 | Exeter | J. Zandier, 69 run (Gaston kick) | 3:10 |
| 3 | Hershey | Cabrera, 7 run (Goodman kick) | 1:01 |
| 4 | Hershey | Cabrera, 2 run (Goodman kick) | 8:08 |
| 4 | Hershey | Cabrera, 1 run (Goodman kick) | 2:36 |
Team statistics
| Exeter | Hershey | |
| First downs | 18 | 19 |
| Rushes-yards | 35-266 | 49-280 |
| Passing yards | 160 | 111 |
| Total yards | 426 | 391 |
| Passes | 9-16-2 | 5-11-1 |
| Fumbles-lost | 2-2 | 1-1 |
| Punts-average | 1-37 | 4-28.5 |
| Penalties-yards | 6-40 | 3-25 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Exeter: J. Zandier 25-222, Martinez 6-26, Caceres 3-16, Boston 1-2.
Hershey: Cabrera 37-173, D. Guzman 5-96, Klein 1-7, Sweeney 5-5, Team 1-(-1).
PASSING
Exeter: Martinez 9-16-2–160.
Hershey: Sweeney 5-11-1–111.
RECEIVING
Exeter: Redding 4-106, Pashley 2-23, J. Zandier 2-14, Stutzman 1-17.
Hershey: D. Guzman 4-102, Agurto 1-9.
INTERCEPTIONS
Exeter: Dauble.
Hershey: A. Guzman, Vasquezi.
