Menet and company shine as Exeter rolls Boyertown, 45-6

By Jeff Dewees

 

EXETER TWP>> The debut for a team with designs on capturing the BCIAA Section 1 title went accordingly Friday night at Don Thomas Stadium.

Tailback Chris Scott scored three touchdowns, while Michael Menet blocked a punt, recorded two sacks and caved an entire defensive line to help lift Exeter to a 45-6 win over Boyertown in a non-league clash.

Exeter is expected to give Governor Mifflin a tussle in Berks 1 in an effort to snap the Mustangs’ five-season title streak; led by Menet and Nate Weber on both sides of the trenches, with enough playmakers to put points on the board, the proposed has three months to play out to reality. The Eagles were 8-3 a year ago.

“I’m very pleased,” Exeter head coach Matt Bauer said. “The kids worked so hard, their effort was outstanding. You work all year-long toward this, now it’s hopefully time to enjoy some victories. We had a great crowd and everyone was into it.”

Scott scored on the first snap of the season to get the Eagles off to blazing start. The diminutive senior running back had an inside off right tackle, then cut it back and rolled down the sideline untouched to get Exeter on the board 16 second into the season.

“I’ll take that every time, that’s for sure, “Bauer said with a chuckle.

A mess of a series to open Boyertown’s campaign got the evening off to a rocky start from which the Bears never really recovered. A botched punt snap on the Bears’ first series resulted in a recovery for Exeter at the Boyertown 4. Exeter returned the favor on the next snap, to an extent — a bad handoff resulted in a 19-yard loss — but Nick Bentz nailed a 37-yard field goal to give the home folks a 10-0 lead.

Dan Heller gave Boyertown its only highlight of the night on the next play, when he weaved his way through special teams coverage on the ensuing kickoff for a 95-yard return. Having played exactly 3:30, 16 points were on the board.

But that was it for the Bears. Menet and company thoroughly bottled up quarterback Lawrence Garnett and running back Marcus Thomas’ Garnett attempted just six passes and found the mark once. The Bears had just 33 net yards of total offense at the break.

“Exeter’s a great team and they deserved the win they got tonight,” Boyertown second-year head coach George Parkinson said, who is hoping to improve on last season’s 5-5 mark. “Our biggest problem was up front. Our guys had a tough time up front dealing with them. Making, holes, creating holes, their guys were just huge.”

Indeed. Nothing symbolized that better than Menet collapsing the entire d-line to spring Nick Sarangoulis for a seven-yard waltz up the middle to paydirt for the final score of the opening quarter, which went to the Eagles 17-6.

Exeter quarterback Brandoon Unterkoefler made his varsity debut under center and impressed. He threw scoring strikes of 38, 21 and 53 yards en route to a crisply efficient 8-of-10 for 168 yards.

“Both Brandon and Chris (Scott) had great starts for us,” Bauer said.

Scott scored twice in the first four minutes of the second period to give Exeter a 3-16 lead, then Gabe Schappell and Greg Lombardo each hauled in strikes to set the accelerated clock in motion midway through the third quarter.

 

Boyertown – 6  0  0  0 — 6

Exeter – 17  21  7  0 — 45

 

First Quarter

E – Chris Scott 57 run (Nick Bentz kick), 11:33

E – Bentz 37 FG, 8:50

B – Dan Heller 95 KO return (kick failed), 8:30

E – Nick Sarangoulis 7 run (Bentz kick), 2:03

 

Second Quarter

E – Scott 2 run (Bentz kick), 9:41

E – Scott 38 pass from Brandon Unterkoefler (Bentz kick), 8:12

E – Gabe Schappell 21 pass from Unterkoefler (Bentz kick), 3:13

 

Third Quarter

E- Greg Lombardo 53 pass from Unterkoefler (Bentz kick), 7:51

 

Fourth Quarter

None

 

Team statistics

First Downs

Exeter 12, Boyertown 4

Rushes-yards

Exeter 23-120, Boyertown 25-45

Pass comp-att-int

Exeter 8-11-168-0, Boyertown 1-7-22-1

Total yards

Exeter 291, Boyertown 48

Fumbles-lost

Exeter 4-0, Boyertown 2-1

Punts-ave.

Exeter 2-38.0, Boyertown 3-15.5

Pens-yards

Exeter 4-55, Boyertown 2-18

 

Individual statistics

Passing

E, Brandon Unterkoefler 8-10-168-0, Mike Stout 0-1-0-0; B, Lawrence Garnett 1-6-22-1, Jerry Kapp 0-1-0.

Rushing

E, Chris Scott 5-71, Connor McGarry 2-11, LeRoy Longenecker 2-17, Unterkoefler 2-8, Gabe Schappell 2-16, Nick Sarangoulis 7-43, Hector Roman 1-0, Stout 1-(-3), Gage Moran 1-0; B, Garnett 10-0, Dan Heller 2-(-16), Marcus Thomas 8-29, Greg Harvey 3-14, Knapp 2-8. Team loss, -19.

Receiving

E, Longeneckker 1-23, Gabe Schappell 2-25, Scott 1-38, Greg Lombardo 1-53, Ryan Barzd 1-5; B, Kapp 1-22.