Exeter Controls Trenches, Rides Defense to 28-6 Win Over Gov. Mifflin
The short version
- Exeter improved to 2-0 in Section 2 and 4-1 overall with its fifth straight win over Gov. Mifflin.
- The Eagles outgained the Mustangs 258-71 in the first half and led 21-0 at the break.
- Josh Jackson rushed for 98 yards and a touchdown; Donovyn Alvarez added 41 yards.
- Nick Kozik recovered a muffed punt in the end zone for an Exeter touchdown.
- Mifflin (0-5) got a late 5-yard touchdown from Jack Miller to Caeson Skipper.
The Eagles built a 21-0 halftime lead behind a punishing ground game and a defense that has allowed just six points over two weeks.
The Exeter Eagles rolled past Berks County rival Gov. Mifflin 28-6 on Friday in a Week 5 Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 2 game played in Reiffton. The win moves Exeter to 2-0 in Section 2 and 4-1 overall, and it marked the fifth straight victory for the Eagles over the Mustangs.
Exeter settled the outcome early. The Eagles outgained Mifflin 258-71 in the first half and permitted just one first down before the break, taking a 21-0 lead into halftime. Over the past two weeks, the Exeter defense has surrendered only six points — those coming on Mifflin's final drive of the night after the Eagles blanked Ephrata a week earlier.
Senior captain Josh Jackson described a defense operating as a single unit. "Right now, we're moving not as a group of individuals, but as one team, like a brotherhood," he said. "We all know we're on the same page. We all know our jobs, and we all do our jobs." On the ground, Jackson carried 13 times for 98 yards, while Donovyn Alvarez added 41 yards on seven carries.
The Eagles leaned on a ground-heavy approach, with the longest gain of the night a 19-yard play-action connection from Aiden Gerhart to Braylon Reinert. Gerhart finished that opening 10-play drive with a 2-yard touchdown run on a designed quarterback power play. Jackson then took over the second series, ripping off consecutive gains of 4, 10, 18 and 14 yards — the 18-yarder coming on a fake jet pop-pass handoff — before punching in a 1-yard score to make it 14-0 in the first quarter.
Mifflin had its chances. After a punt bounced off an Exeter player and was recovered by the Mustangs at the Eagles' 45-yard line, Jack Miller hit Lucas Kreider over the middle, but Nick Pashley stripped the ball at the 1-yard line for a turnover. Exeter then closed the half with a two-minute drill, keyed by a 37-yard Gerhart-to-Reinert completion, and Xavier Mercado scored from three yards out with 21 seconds left for a 21-0 edge.
The game's strangest score came on a Mifflin punt early in the second half. The punter mishandled the snap and kicked the loose ball, which rolled roughly 40 yards toward the goal line, and Exeter's Nick Kozik dove on it in the end zone for a touchdown. The Mustangs added their lone score late when Miller connected with Caeson Skipper on a 5-yard slant. Miller is one of six sophomore starters on each side of the ball for Mifflin, which fell to 0-5.
Mifflin head coach Nick Morrissey took encouragement from his young team's physicality. "This game was monumental for us," Morrissey said. "We were supposed to lose this game by 100 points, and our kids came out and met their physicality. I could not be more proud of the way our kids played." He added that if the Mustangs sustain that level of physicality over the final five weeks, "great things are going to happen." Running back Patrick Steuer finished with 116 yards on 33 carries for Mifflin, with only one run longer than 10 yards.
Mifflin is scheduled to visit Lebanon next Friday. Fans can also catch Lebanon on the road this weekend: the Cedars travel to Waynesville High School on Saturday, September 26, with kickoff at 2:45 PM EDT.
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