Eagles’ two-pronged backfield too much for Muhls
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Logan Moyer — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
Exeter’s two-headed backfield monster showed up again Friday night in the Eagles’ 42-0 win over Muhlenberg in a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 2 game at Laureldale.
The Eagles ran for 233 yards, led by 111 yards from Jayden Zandier and 79 from Pharrell Caceres.
“It’s a good problem to have,” said 15th-year Exeter coach Matt Bauer. “They’re two very different backs, two very explosive backs. It’s hard to zero in on one of them because they both bring different things to the table.”
Caceres, the Eagles’ leading rusher, found the end zone twice as Exeter won its 19th consecutive regular season contest.
“Me and Jayden, you know, either one of us is gonna provide for the team,” Caceres said. “I feel like I had a good game. Some mistakes I could definitely tune up.”
Zandier finished as the games’ leading rusher and averaged just over 11 yards per carry. He also scored a TD.
“It’s just a one-two punch, I love it” Zandier said. “We just had to figure out a couple of blocking schemes, the way they were blitzing and then we picked it up. It was just easy.”
“(Zandier) has the ability to take it the distance on any run,” said Bauer. “He’s a very explosive player. He doesn’t need much of a crease to accelerate. He runs hard, he keeps his legs moving and he’s elusive.”
The Eagles (4-0, 7-0) didn’t start fast Friday. They didn’t score until Caceres found the end zone on a 5-yard dash with two minutes remaining in the first quarter.
“It was just mental mistakes,” Caceres said of the slow start. “Everybody’s got to pick it up, keep each other up and keep it going.”
That score was quickly followed up with a pair of touchdown runs, by Zandier and Caceres. All three scores came within a four-minute span.
Exeter sophomore quarterback Riley Martinez, who was taken off the field on a stretcher late in the fourth quarter of last week’s game against Warwick, was back in action Friday. He attempted only seven passes but two went for touchdowns.
“Tough kid, no question about it,” Bauer said. “He’s a hard worker, he’s a leader for us. He wants to be at the helm.”
The first of Martinez’s TD tosses came midway through the second quarter when he found backup tight end Genuine Stutzman for a 15-yard TD connection.
The second came midway through the third quarter when he connected with starting tight end and Coastal Carolina commit Zach Zandier for a 24-yard TD. The latter score put the Eagles up by 35 points and started the running clock.
The Exeter defense held the Muhls (1-3, 1-6) to 79 total yards and less than 1 yard per carry.
“In all, our defense played very well,” Bauer said. “We were sound in most of the things we did and we controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. That’s all we needed to do.”
It wasn’t a clean night for the Eagles offensively. They fumbled the ball four times and were penalized 10 times for a total of 90 yards.
“We definitely need to cut down on our penalties if we’re going to be successful in late October or November,” Bauer said. “That’s going to be a point of emphasis. A lot of the fouls that we had tonight were very aggressive fouls, and you know we’re a physical team, and our line takes pride in that.”
The Eagles, ranked No. 3 in the state in Class 5A, host Hempfield next week. The Black Knights, typically a strong program, have had a rough go of things in the first half of the season. They’ll go into next week’s matchup with a 2-5 record.
“We have to eliminate penalties and get back to the basics,” Bauer said. “We need to be able to control the line of scrimmage.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Exeter | 14 | 13 | 8 | 7 | 42 |
| Muhlenberg | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Exeter | Caceres, 5 run (kick failed) | 2:27 |
| 1 | Exeter | J. Zandier, 28 run (Z. Zandier pass from Martinez) | 0:28 |
| 2 | Exeter | Caceres, 35 run (Gaston kick) | 11:06 |
| 2 | Exeter | Stutzman, 15 pass from Martinez (kick failed) | 6:51 |
| 3 | Exeter | Z. Zandier, 24 pass from Martinez (Ware pass from Martinez) | 6:05 |
| 4 | Exeter | Boston, 4 run (Gaston kick) | 10:34 |
Team statistics
| Exeter | Muhlenberg | |
| First downs | 15 | 5 |
| Rushes-yards | 34-233 | 18-12 |
| Passing yards | 59 | 67 |
| Total yards | 292 | 79 |
| Passes | 3-7-0 | 8-19-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 4-1 | 4-1 |
| Punts-average | 3-44.7 | 8-36.4 |
| Penalties-yards | 10-90 | 1-5 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Exeter: J. Zandier 10-111, Caceres 12-79, Boston 5-38, Martinez 4-6, Stutzman 1-1, Hafer 2-(-2).
Muhlenberg: Miller 10-44, Torok 3-0, Cipolla 5-(-32).
PASSING
Exeter: Martinez 3-7-0–59
Muhlenberg: Cipolla 8-19-0–67
RECEIVING
Exeter: Z. Zandier 2-44, Stutzman 1-15.
Muhlenberg: Dodson 5-42, Miller 2-19, Archie 1-6.
