Exeter at a loss after District 3 Class 5A championship by 12th-seeded Cocalico
Like a lot of his Exeter teammates senior lineman Anthony Caccese wasn’t quite sure what hit him Friday night.
Some 30 minutes after a stunning 34-14 loss to 12th-seeded Cocalico in the District 3 Class 5A championship game at Don Thomas Stadium Caccese couldn’t figure out how the league’s best rush defense got run over like that.
“We should’ve been able to stop ’em,” said the 6-6 all-league tackle. “I’m not really sure what happened out there.”
Cocalico made a bold statement by opening the game with a 16-play, 8 1/2-minute opening drive to take the lead. No one’s come close to doing that against the Exeter defense this season; no one had reached the end zone in the first quarter before that.
“They surprised me a lot, how they were able to move our lines,” said Exeter senior Joey Schlaffer. “I think that surprised everybody a lot. We knew they were a very good team but we were a little shocked that they came out the first drive and put seven up right away.”
Second-seeded Exeter won a program-record 12 games and a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 2 title on the strength of its offensive and defense lines. It’s where it all begins and ends with the Eagles.
But the other Eagles (10-4) — the ones from Cocalico — were equal to the challenge. More than equal, actually.
Cocalico went up 13-0, led 20-7 at the half, then — after Exeter seemed to find its footing late in the third quarter when it pulled within 20-7 — struck again, all but putting the game out of reach with a touchdown on the second play of the fourth quarter.
Cocalico, which was 3-4 at midseason, completed its miraculous run to the championship with its seventh straight win. It became the first double-digit seed to win a District 3 football championship in any classification.
It took the script that Exeter wrote last season — when it came in as the No. 7 seed and won three straight road games on the way to its first district championship — and did it one better. Cocalico won four road games, knocking out, in order, the No. 5, 4, 1 and 2 seeds.
“It’s surreal,” Cocalico quarterback Josh Myer told Jeff Reinhart of LancasterOnline.com. “I’m still in shock.”
He had plenty of company at Don Thomas Stadium.
Myer had a right to be taken aback. In the run-oriented Flex Bone offense he’s rarely called upon to throw. He averaged less than one pass attempt per quarter this season. He showed up in Reiffton Friday having thrown three TDs in 13 games.
He dropped two on Exeter.
“Believe it or not, we throw a decent amount before the game,” said Cocalico coach Bryan Strohl. “We feel like if we need it we should have it, but you never know. It’s not what we focus on the most. It’s nice to have that threat when you need it. Josh threw a couple nice balls, Aaryn (Longeneckeer) made a couple nice catches.”
Myer threw just two passes Friday and each was pivotal in the upset.
The first came in the final minute of the first half, after Carter Getz intercepted a pass at midfield. Cocalico took over at the Exeter 42. On the first play he found split end Longenecker streaking down the sideline, uncovered, and hit him in stride to push the lead to 20-7.
Later, after Exeter scored to make it a one-possession game, Myer struck again, launching a 45-yard strike deep down the middle to Longenecker, to the 28. That set up Steffy’s 13-yard TD run; his two-point conversion run made it 28-14 with 11:06 remaining.
Cocalico did all sorts of damage with its run game, Myer piercing the defense for 70 of its 189 rushing yards — the most the Eagles yielded all season. Longenecker and Braden Eppinette burned Exeter around the edges several times. All those runs sucked the Exeter defense in.
“They lull you to sleep,” said Exeter coach Matt Bauer. “They keep running and running and running, the kids put their eyes in the backfield . . . it only takes a half second and the guy’s past them.”
Cocalico’s defense was in championship form, too. It held Exeter to 60 first-half yards, became the first team to hold the Eagles to one touchdown in the first half, and to as few as 14 points.
It also held Schlaffer, the most prolific receiver in program history, without a catch. Quarterback Mason Rotelli was off his game; he missed on 12 of his 17 throws, was picked off twice and was replaced by Schlaffer at quarterback for a couple of second-half possessions.
“We should’ve put up more points than we did,” said Schlaffer. “That’s where we really struggled. We’re a high-scoring offense. Credit to them, they played a great game.”
Exeter never seemed to recover from that opening drive, when its defense couldn’t get off the field.
Middlelinebacker Lucas Palange pulled Eppinette down for a 3-yard loss on the first play from scrimmage and Cocalico soon faced third-and 12 — a tough proposition for an offense that generally works between the tackles.
Longenecker broke contain on a Jet Sweep and ran for 13 yards on third down. It was the first of five straight third-down conversions on the opening drive.
“I left it up to the captains (after winning the coin flip), and they wanted the ball (to start the game),” Strohl said. “They wanted to set the tone and I feel like we did that.”
It was Cocalico’s only extended drive of the night. It went three-and-out on five of its next 10 possessions. But that opening salvo left it’s mark.
“Those long drives,” said Schlaffer, “those eight-minute, nine-minute drives, just pounding the football downhill and then punching in . . . it’s hard to come back from that. We were in a lull to start the game and we just weren’t ready for it.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Cocalico | 13 | 7 | 0 | 14 | 34 |
| Exeter | 0 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 14 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Cocalico | Steffey, 2 run (Roos kick) | 3:28 |
| 1 | Cocalico | Eppinette, 46 run (run failed) | 1:05 |
| 2 | Exeter | Karstien, 1 run (Skipper kick) | 5:35 |
| 2 | Cocalico | Longenecker, 42 pass from Myer (Roos kick) | 0:21 |
| 3 | Exeter | Karstien, 1 run (Skipper kick) | 2:04 |
| 4 | Cocalico | Myer, 13 run (Popolis kick) | 11:06 |
| 4 | Cocalico | Myers, 5 run (kick failed) | 3:47 |
Team statistics
| Cocalico | Exeter | |
| First downs | 11 | 12 |
| Rushes-yards | 43-189 | 38-95 |
| Passing yards | 87 | 96 |
| Total yards | 276 | 191 |
| Passes | 2-3-0 | 7-20-3 |
| Fumbles-lost | 0-0 | 1-0 |
| Punts-average | 5-26.8 | 3-49.0 |
| Penalties-yards | 2-20 | 6-37 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Cocalico: Myer 16-70, Eppinette 5-52, Steffey 17-49, Longenecker 5-18.
Exeter: Karstien 22-89, Schlaffer 6-17, Rotelli 9-(-10).
PASSING
Cocalico: Myer 2-2-0–87, Longenecker 0-1-0–0.
Exeter: Rotelli 5-17-2–36, Schlaffer 2-3-1–60.
RECEIVING
Cocalico: Longenecker 2-87.
Exeter: Zandier 3-73, Karstien 2-13, Redding 2-10.
INTERCEPTIONS
Cocalico: Getz, Longenecker, Drain.
