Resilient Eagles have squeezed into BCIAA boys soccer final by slimmest of margins

By Jason Guarente — MikeDragoSports senior correspondent

Their bus stayed parked outside of Gov. Mifflin’s stadium and they waited to learn if their season was over. It was an agonizing few minutes for Exeter’s boys soccer players.

If Reading High won or tied against Wilson on the final day of the regular season, the Eagles were in the county playoffs. If not, it was time to turn in those blue and white jerseys.

As soon as the Red Knights scored in overtime, word spread like wildfire.

“It was a crazy ride home,” senior Tanner Karas said. “The bus was shaking a little bit. The music was going. Everyone was singing. I don’t remember having my voice the next day. It was definitely a night to remember.”

Exeter has made the most of its new life. The seventh-seeded Eagles (8-9-3) face No. 1 Fleetwood (14-5) in the BCIAA championship game at Tulpehocken Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

What made Exeter’s last-minute entry into the tournament even more dramatic is the team has 13 seniors. This wasn’t just a season on the line. It was an era.

To exit without appearing in the county playoffs would have been a huge disappointment.

“I remember when these kids were freshmen, so you reflect back four years ago until now,” coach Eric Franks said. “How hard they’ve worked. The progress they’ve all made. They were boys when they were freshmen. Now they’re men. They’re serious soccer players. They’ve improved so much.”

Exeter’s last six weeks were a test of resilience. The Eagles have been walking on a razor’s edge. They won just one of their first nine games and they were 2-8-2 on Sept. 25.

Not many teams could find their way off the mat under those circumstances. Somehow Exeter recovered.

“We did have a rough start,” midfielder Jared Green said. “That shouldn’t really stop us. We still had more games ahead of us even if we flunked the first few games. We all just kept our focus. We really got our stuff together.”

It has been win-or-else for Green and his teammates for a month.

Exeter held off Reading High 4-2 to start a five-game winning streak against Berks opponents. The next four wins were by identical 1-0 scores. Wilson and Mifflin to capture Berks I. Wyomissing and Tulpehocken to advance in the playoffs.

“The intensity level has been awesome,” Franks said. “They’re focused. They’re working hard. I didn’t lose faith. Neither did they. We knew we had a good team. We had to correct some of our weaknesses.”

Exeter played an extremely difficult schedule at the start with western powers Quaker Valley and Mount Lebanon the opening weekend followed by Lancaster-Lebanon League contenders Warwick, Ephrata and Manheim Township.

The Eagles have struggled to score, with 21 goals in 20 games, and that can cause problems to multiply. Even during this stretch of wins, goals have been scarce.

“We just trusted each other,” senior Justin Kinney said. “We knew it was going to come together eventually. We had to figure out a way to do it. We got there in the end.”

Kinney leads the team with six goals. No one else has more than three.

It has been a different finisher every night recently. Kinney had the winner against Tulpehocken, Harrison Davis struck against Wyomissing, Matthew Skipper delivered in the finale against Mifflin and Mike Moser scored in a critical late-season win over Wilson.

That’s an unusual way to reach a county final. The Eagles are one win from their first title since 2014.

“As the season went along, we started to act more like a team,” Karas said. “Our bond together over the four years finally started to show. We were able to get ourselves together and keep it going.”

Fleetwood, which defeated Oley Valley 1-0 in the semifinals, knocked off Exeter 2-0 when the teams collided at Reiffton on Sept. 16. That probably feels like ancient history for the Eagles.

This is Exeter’s last stand. The Berks I champs didn’t qualify for the District 3 playoffs. That made Wednesday the final practice for this group at Don Thomas Stadium.

“It’s going to be sad for them to go,” Franks said. “But this class put Exeter back on the map with what we’ve done this year. I told them I couldn’t appreciate them more.”

A county championship gives these Eagles a place in school history. That has been the goal all along. The dream ending.

“It would mean the world to us,” Karas said. “We’ve definitely been working for it. Everything is starting to come together at the right time.”