Governor Mifflin stuffs Exeter, 28-14

SHILLINGTON >> Governor Mifflin didn’t play its sharpest football game Friday night. But the Mustangs pulled off enough big plays to take early control of the Berks League Section 1 race.

The Mustangs had scoring plays of 79, 80 and 40 yards to repel section rival Exeter, 28-14, at Mustang Stadium and win what has been the de facto title game for the past handful of seasons in the top rung of the Berks circuit.

The winner of the Governor Mifflin-Exeter clash has gone on to win the Section 1 crown the past seven seasons. Friday night’s result puts Mifflin, the defending champion, in the cat bird seat, again, after its league opener.

The Mustangs (4-1, 1-0) have been sandblasting teams thus far with a potent rushing attack, featuring bulldozer back Isaac Ruoss. Ruoss got his yards again — compiling 153 of them of 16 totes — including an 80-yard dash in early in the second quarter that broke a 7-all deadlock and a 20-yard rumble to pay dirt midway through the third quarter that finished the guests off.

Such a meat grinder attack can lend itself as a decoy, though.

That’s what happened after Exeter (2-2, 0-1) stunned the partisan crowd at Mustang Stadium on the game’s first snap, when quarterback Brandon Unterkoefler found wide out Jack Fiucci on a fly pattern for a 64-yard score 16 seconds into the contest.

Although senior quarterback Kam Wolfe has always possessed a gun of a right arm — he was Mifflin’s situational third down quarterback a year ago — the Mustangs are not constructed vertically. On its first possession of the night, facing a third-and-9 at its own 21, the hosts responded in a big way to Exeter’s first-snap shocker.

Exeter loaded the box, nine Eagles within a few yards of the line of scrimmage. Wolfe glanced at wideout Bryce Stubler, who had single coverage. Wolfe tapped his helmet.

Stubler took off on a fly, got a pair of steps beyond his man, and hauled in a perfectly-thrown 79-yard strike from Wolfe to tie the game at 7-7, a mere 55 seconds after the Eagles opened the scoring.

“Kam knows how fast I am,” Stubler said. “We basically do that a lot in practice. If a guy is up close, he audibles me to a ‘stretch’. Kam and I have a lot of good chemistry going on and I can’t wait to see what we can do.”

Wolfe: “Football’s a game of momentum. You’ve got to stay calm.”

The duo repeated late in the first half to open up a 21-7 edge — though the second hook-up came on cross, not an audibled fly. Wolfe found Stubler 20 yards downfield on a 1st-and-15 from the Exeter 40 –set up by Nick Sangoulis’ second fumble of night —  and the junior wideout did the rest, turning the corner and finishing the final 20 himself with 1:47 left in  the half.

“Bryce has amazing speed and he will get behind anyone,” Wolfe said. “And if they’re pressing, I’m tapping my head.”

Wolfe was just 4 of 13 passing but it hardly mattered. Those four completions netted 150 and two scores.

Speaking of Exeter’s feature back, Mifflin’s defensive effort harassed Sangoulis into a sub-par evening. He was held to 57 rushing yards on 20 carries and committed two costly fumbles. No. 31 in white was the focus all week at practice in Shillington.

“The kids worked their butts off all week (in practice) to shut him down and they did a beautiful job,” Mifflin head coach Mick Vecchio said. ” ‘Stop 31, stop 31, about a million times.’ That’s what we did.”

Unterkoefler, with his backfield mate having an off night, took most of the rushes after the break, becoming Exeter’s sole offensive resource. He compiled 94 rush yards on 24 carries and willed the Eagles to within a pair of scores with a 1-yard plunge late in the game; the senior signal-caller was 5 of 10 for 99 yards passing and one interception. Sixty-four of those 99 yards came on the first snap. Emerging tight end threat Matt Feeney was held without a catch.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, Unterkoefler’s touchdown came with just 3:55 left to play. Mifflin recovered the onside kick and rode the contest out.

 

Governor Mifflin 28, Exeter 14

Exeter — 7  0  0  7 – 14

Governor Mifflin —  7  14  7  0  – 28

First quarter

E – Jack Fiucci 64 pass from Brandon Unterkoefler (Josh Cuppitt kick), 11:44

GM – Bryce Stubler 79 pass from Kam Wolfe (Ben Myers kick), 10:49

Second quarter

GM – Isaac Ruoss 80 run (Myers kick), 10:22

GM – Stubler 40 pass from Wolfe (Myers kick), 1:47

Third quarter

GM – Ruoss 20 run (Myers kick), 6:13

Fourth quarter

E – Unterkoefler 1 run (Cuppitt kick), 3:55

 

First Downs

GM 10, E 13

Rushing

GM 29-161, E 51-172

Passing

GM 4-13-150-0, E 5-10-99-1

Total yards

GM 311, E 271

Fumbles-lost

GM 1-1, E 2-2

Penalties-yards

GM 9-88, E 6-55

Punts-ave.

GM 5-39.0, E 4-31.3