Ty Yocum makes the stop that got Eagles started in big win over Saints
GoBigRecruiting.com Game of the Week
No football game comes down to one single play.
There were more than 100 plays Friday night at Forino Sports Complex, eight of them ending up as touchdowns; another dozen plays set up those scores, or stopped others.
One play, though, defined Exeter’s 33-26 Berks Football League Section 1 win over Berks Catholic. It comes as no surprise that it came from Eagles linebacker Ty Yocum.
He stuffed fullback Luke Hughes on fourth-and-inches from the Saints’ 29 with seven minutes left and BC down just five points.
A first down there and the Saints (2-1, 5-2) have plenty of time to take it down the field for the go-ahead score in the GoBigRecruiting.com Game of the Week.
Yocum, a gnarly 220-pound senior who seems like he’s been in the middle of the Eagles’ defense for about a decade, wouldn’t have any of it.
He met Hughes — a 225-pound converted guard — head-on behind the line and took him down, essentially clinching a game the Eagles (2-1, 5-2) have been waiting for for a very long time.
“He is the heart and soul of of this team,” said Exeter head coach Matt Bauer, repeating a line he’s used about Yocum over and over again. “He’s the toughest, most blue-collar kid I’ve ever coached, and the kids just rally around him.”
Ty’s the youngest of three tough Yocum brothers. Kyle and Chase, stalwarts in the Exeter program years before him, knocked him around pretty good when he was a kid.
Now Ty’s doing the same to the other kids. He put everything he’s learned and felt growing up in the program into a play that will go down as one of the Eagles’ biggest this season.
Yocum read it — a fullback dive, a bread-and-butter play of the Wing-T — and reacted as though he’s seen it a hundred times before.
“They motioned over, then they did the shuffle motion,” he said of his read, “that means they’re doing dive right away. I went up the B-gap.”
A couple minutes later he finished the job, crashing over from the 1 –his second touchdown of the night — to give the Eagles a two-possession lead with 1:31 left.
Ballgame.
“We deserved it,” Yocum said of the win.”Our guys deserve it, our line deserve it, our coaches deserve it, too.”
The Eagles wanted it in the worst way. None of them had ever beaten the Saints. Last year they led at halftime, only to lose 56-28. The year before they were up 10-0 heading into the fourth quarter at Forino Sports Complex only to give up a pair of late touchdown runs.
Four straight years they lost to Berks Catholic.
“I’ve had some very bad nights on this field,” said Bauer. “We didn’t want them to forget how that felt these last two years. This was burned into their minds. I challenged them to want this more than they did, and I think tonight we answered the call.”
“It would’ve bugged me a lot (to lose to them again),” Yocum admitted.
It looked for a little while like they might.
Exeter’s first drive of the second half ended on an interception, Colin Payne’s third of the night. He was off his game. Berks’ top-rated passer was 5-of-15 at one point after overthrowing Joey Schlaffer on what would have been a 41-yard go-ahead score.
The Saints took over at the Exeter 33 after Trace Brown’s interception. A couple plays later Josiah Jordan made a terrific run off the right side, with a beautiful spin move at the 10 that freed him for a 21-yard touchdown and 21-14 BC lead.
The Saints forced a three-and-out on Exeter’s next possession.
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The Eagles got some momentum back when J.R. Strauss downed at punt at the 4 (he stopped one a the 1 earlier in the game). Backed up against their own goal line the Saints couldn’t do anything and punted it away; the Eagles took over at the 41 after Carson Schmidt’s 17-yard punt return.
Payne found Schmidt for a 22-yard gain to the 6, and Yocum — a practically unstoppable goal-line runner — crashed over from the 3 to make it 21-20. When the Eagles missed the PAT the Saints held the lead.
Linebacker Lucas Palange made a terrific play on third-and-4, pulling Christian Cacchione down for a loss and forcing a punt. Yocum got a hand on it, and the Eagles started at their own 38 with 11 minutes to go.
Payne found Schlaffer for a 22-yard gain on first down, then, three plays later, hooked up with him again on a beautifully thrown 27-yard skinny post that gave Exeter the lead for good with nine minutes left.
“It was a perfect ball,” said Yocum.
After a rough start Payne finished fast, completing his last three throws, good for 71 yards.
“I don’t let that bother me, at all,” he said of the three earlier interceptions. “I don’t worry about my stats. My main focus is just on what the scoreboard says, that’s all that really matters. I just want the win.”
Afterward Saints coach Rick Keeley had no regrets about going for it deep on his side of the field. He was trying to win the game and had faith his guys could execute it.
“If I had to do it all over again, I’d have called the same play,” Keeley said. “With the guys we have up front, they way they’re coming off the ball, and Luke hitting up in there… It was the right call, a big play, in a big game, and Exeter won that play.”
As Yocum made his way off the field, Keeley stopped him.
“I told him, ‘You played a great game tonight on both sides of the ball.’ He had some big stops tonight, and he had some big runs,” Keeley said. “He kept the chains moving for them, and stopped our chains.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Exeter | 7 | 7 | 6 | 13 | 33 |
| Berks Catholic | 7 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 21 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Exeter | Schmidt, 21 pass from Payne (Moses kick) | 4:14 |
| 1 | Berks Catholic | Hughes, 4 run (Givens kick) | 2:17 |
| 2 | Exeter | Nangle, 17 run (Moser kick) | 5:59 |
| 2 | Berks Catholic | Jordan, 75 pass from Gatz (Givens kick) | 4:22 |
| 3 | Berks Catholic | Jordan, 21 run | 6:33 |
| 3 | Exeter | Yocum, 3 run (kick failed) | 1:05 |
| 4 | Exeter | Schlaffer, 27pass from Payne (pass failed) | 9:00 |
| 4 | Exeter | Yocum 1 run (Moser kick) | 1:31 |
Team statistics
| Exeter | Berks Catholic | |
| First downs | 16 | 9 |
| Rushes-yards | 42-171 | 37-144 |
| Passing yards | 128 | 106 |
| Total yards | 299 | 250 |
| Passes | 8-18-3 | 4-9-3 |
| Fumbles-lost | 1-0 | 1-0 |
| Punts-average | 3-42.6 | 5-46 |
| Penalties-yards | 6-55 | 4-28.2 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Exeter:
Berks Catholic: Cacchione 18-62, Jordan 7-54, Hughes 10-33, Gatz 2-(-5).
PASSING
Exeter: Payne 8-18-3–128.
Berks Catholic: Gatz 4-9-3–106.
RECEIVING
Exeter: Schlaffer 3-56, Yocum 3-29, Schmidt 2-43.
Berks Catholic: Jordan 3-103, Brown 1-3.
INTERCEPTIONS
Exeter: Hollis, Garretson, Boyer.
Berks Catholic: Pichardo, Armistead, Brown.