Eagles upset at letting one slip away against Hempfield
By Jason Guarente — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
LANDISVILLE — Before Sam Orzolek walked off the field toward a quiet locker room, he allowed himself to take a peek at the other side.
Exeter’s senior could hear the rising celebration. He could feel the helmets being raised. It was hard not to look.
“We’ve just got to remember that we played a lousy game,” Orzolek said. “We didn’t want the win. That’s why we lost. It can’t happen again this year.”
Hempfield mounted a second-half comeback and stunned Exeter 17-14 in the GoBigRecruiting.com Game of the Week Friday night at Landisville.
One week after the high of a 28-point win over Wilson, there was an unexpected low. Coach Matt Bauer blamed himself in a brief, animated post-game talk with his players.
“I just can’t believe we lost,” senior Lucas Palange said. “We were definitely the better team out there tonight. We just didn’t want it enough.”
There was hope until the end.
Mike Moser’s 32-yard field goal attempt was blocked with 4.6 seconds left. Although that was the decisive moment for Exeter, its last shot, there were many other key points along the way.
One reason the loss felt so jarring is the Eagles seemed to be in control from the start.
Exeter marched 10 plays for 76 yards and scored on Ty Yocum’s 2-yard run on its first possession. The Eagles raised their lead to 14-0 with Eric Nangle’s 5-yard scoring run in the final minute of the first half.
Other than Cannon Biscoe’s field goal shortly before intermission, Exeter’s defense was stout. One play is when it all shifted. A broken coverage left Braydon Felsinger alone and his 71-yard TD reception pulled Hempfield within 14-9 late in the third quarter.
“I’m not really sure what happened on that play,” Palange said. “I just remember rolling over to the middle of the field, turning around and seeing him wide open.”
The good news was Exeter was still ahead.
“At that point I wasn’t worried,” Orzolek said. “I think we’re normally a pretty resilient group. But tonight we weren’t.”
Exeter’s defense buckled in the fourth. Hempfield (2-2) put together its best drive for 76 yards and took its first lead on Stephen Katch’s 8-yard touchdown run with 5:12 left.
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Quarterback Colin Payne led Exeter (2-2) on a last-chance push that was mostly guts and determination. Payne scrambled for one first down. He threw a dart to Jacob Wolfe for another. He converted a 4th-and-3 with a connection to Joey Schlaffer.
That put Exeter within Moser’s range at Hempfield’s 15. Adam Acker burst untouched around the right end and blocked the attempt off Moser’s foot.
Payne completed 14-of-25 passes for 143 yards. Nangle carried 22 bruising times for 92 yards. Schlaffer caught 5 passes for 53 yards.
Yocum and Payne were two of the last players to exit the stadium. Yocum gave his QB a hug and offered him words of encouragement.
“He’s one of the biggest leaders on our team,” Yocum said. “He’s the building block. We just need to take this, put a fire up our butt and come out even more pissed off than we were against Central York.”
The first four weeks have been a roller coaster for Exeter. A hard-fought loss to Central York. A blowout of Wilson. And now this.
The Eagles are at West York next week before five consecutive league games. They’ll have to find a way to recover.
“We want to talk like we’re the best; we want to act like we’re the best,” Orzolek said. “Then we’re not executing. It’s on us. We crumbled late.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Exeter | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| Hempfield | 0 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 17 |
Scoring summary
| Team | Player | Play | From | PAT Player | Extra Point |
| Exeter | Yocum | 2 run | Moser | kick | |
| Exeter | Nangle | 5 run | Moser | kick | |
| Hempfield | Biscoe | 30 FG | |||
| Hempfield | Felsinger | 71 pass | Harbaugh | Kick blocked | |
| Hempfield | Katch | 8 run | Gates | Harbaugh pass | |
Team statistics
| EXETER | HEMPFIELD | |
| First downs | 17 | 10 |
| Rushes-yards | 39-178 | 25-52 |
| Passing yards | 143 | 197 |
| Total yards | 321 | 249 |
| Passes | 14-25-0 | 16-24-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 1-0 | 0-0 |
| Punts-average | 3-29.7 | 3-38 |
| Penalties-yards | 7-59 | 5-33 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Exeter: Nangle 22-92, Yocum 12-58, Payne 3-17, Strauss 2-11.
Hempfield: Katch 8-47, Harbaugh 13-0, Smith 4-5.
PASSING
Exeter: Payne 14-25-0–143.
Hempfield: Harbaugh 16-22-0–197, Cody Gehres 0-2-0–0.
RECEIVING
Exeter: Schlaffer 5-53, Nangle 3-29, Schmidt 3-28, Yocum 1-17, Wolfe 2-16.
Hempfield: Felsinger 2-77, Acker 6-58, A. Garcia 4-40, Smith 3-16, Gates 1-6.
