After 48 minutes of a high school football game, there is only one statistic that matters … the final score. You can take all of the fancy numbers you want and throw them in the trash. That’s what happened Friday night at Forino Sports Complex on the campus of Berks Catholic High School.
Exeter controlled the ball for 30:43 minutes to the Saints 17:17 minutes. The Eagles ran 69 offensive plays to Berks Catholic’s 32 and out gained them 336-189. But the one stat that will haunt the Eagles is 21 penalties for 150 yards, and at the final buzzer, the Saints came away with a 14-10 victory.
Exeter opened the scoring on their first drive, taking the ball 43 yards, finished off by Jeremiah Nixon’s six-yard touchdown run. The Eagles ended the first half with an 11 play, 74-yard drive capped by a 25-yard field goal by Sean Henry.
The score remained 10-0 until Berks Catholic’s, Nolan Larkin, took a hand off 81 yards for the Saints first points with 6:49 remaining in the game. “Abdul McFoy had a really nice reach block on the edge and set me up perfectly. Clay Gibbs had a nice block on the outside that I was able to read and cut off of it. Then just go”, said Larkin.
After Exeter was forced into a 3 and out, Berks Catholic’s Abdul McFoy raced 52 yards, giving the Saints the 14-10 lead with 4:08 to play.
The Eagles were not finished. They returned the kickoff to their 36-yard line and used ten plays to get to the Saints four. On fourth and goal, Exeter’s quarterback, Gavin McCusker, looked for his number one target, Alex Javier, but Larkin had him covered and the pass went incomplete. Larkin said, “Yesterday in pregame we ran the same play and we messed up the coverage. So I kind of figured it was coming. I saw the break, so I jumped it.”
A great game by both teams. The Eagles and Saints will get back to practice and look to get better next Friday. Exeter travels to Boyertown, and Berks Catholic will play at Central Dauphin.
