Football Comes Up Short
Boys’ Varsity Football suffered a loss under the lights with a 13-12 loss to Andover on E/a. After an offensive battle in the first half, a defensive clash with drives up and down the field, the game ended with an incomplete pass and a heartbreak for many members of the team and the surrounding crowd.
The game started off with an Andover touchdown, followed by a Keaton to Cecil touchdown a couple plays later, the staple of the Exeter offense. The score was 7-6 after a missed extra point by Exeter, but the offensive movement was far from over. Andover's run game, its offense's major strength, was led by Matthew Pinepento (#10). He stiff armed his way for a 35 yard gain to continue the drive. On a fourth and long with 38 yards to go, Andover took a chance on a post route and connected over coverage for the third touchdown of the night. After six plays and a kick-off, things looked bleak for Exeter. Then Keaton broke the line of scrimmage and burst through the end zone to notch another touchdown for Big Red.
"We knew that it was going to be a slugfest; it always is," said senior captain Brendan Rosseau. "Going into the second half, we knew that every point was going to be crucial, so we made a few adjustments to slow down their run game and ended up not giving up any more points."
Both sides’ drives were cut short by interceptions for Andover, and by fumbles for Exeter. However, the Exeter defense put on a show: halting Pinepento, the former Massachusetts player of the year, swatted passes and tackled for loss giving the offense a chance to come back. Unfortunately, even after many great plays, Exeter simply couldn't put the nail in the coffin.
"There wasn't a single defining play of the game," postgraduate Keaton Dunsford said. "We strayed from our fundamentals throughout the game on both sides of the ball, and we didn't take pride in our special teams play. Those factors defined the game. We let a very bad Andover team control the game from the first snap.”
“After the first half, I think we just came out slow," post-graduate Chris Dumont said. "They game planned for what we had going on offense, and we did the same against them. I think we could have done a better job running the ball, to maintain a steady balance of the pass game and run game."
The team ended with a 2-6 record, but they were far stronger than their stats will say.
"Football is about learning life lessons and responding to them," upper Jeff MacArthur said. "It's about getting blown out in front of a big home crowd and hearing all the verbal abuse from teachers and peers but still coming out to practice and working hard all week. It's about coming together as a team and getting better and better, and that was something special about this team that I never had in my undefeated team my freshman year or my extremely talented team last year. So we're not hanging our hat on 2-6, but we're hanging our hat on being a team that loved each other and worked for each other every week and will continue from now until forever to care about each other and be there for each other."
Dunsford also stated that the team has a positive future. "I'm extremely excited about the rising seniors and young players on next year's team. I believe next year's team has the opportunity to make a very memorable season. As long as they commit to their focused preparations each week and execute in the games, I'm very confident they will succeed, especially versus Andover,” he said.
Rosseau shared similar sentiments. "I really enjoyed playing with these guys. They always play hard and give the team everything they've got, regardless of the score and regardless of our record,” he said. “There's a lot of potential for next year, and I think they'll have a good season.”