2006 Varsity Football

     Big Red opened the season with a convincing 34-16 win at Avon Old Farms. On a beautiful, sunny and 80 degree day in Connecticut, Exeter put together a good effort with a great second-half performance to come away with the victory.

     Led by excellent defense play during the first half and holding the home team to only one very late TD, the team was in a great position for the win. The offense, testing itself for the first time, moved the ball well in the first half behind the running of Mark Seager and Evan Cook. Equally impressive was the play of QB Cameron Ely. His running was very good but his arm led the offense as he connected with JD Van Rossum, Joe Miller, and Mark Seager for most of the yardage.

      Joe Miller caught five passes while Seager had a TD reception of 27 yards for the only first half score. Mani Alaei was good on all four PAT's that he attempted on the day. A failed two-point conversion on the third TD of the day was the only miss. Exeter opened up the game during the third quarter as the defense would allow no more scores for AOF. The offense behind the big pass play of the day, a 54 yard strike from Ely to Max Alderman, put the ball on the three yard line and Ely punched it in. On the next offensive series, the offense unleashed a powerful running game set up by another Miller reception.

     Behind the blocking of the offensive line of Mike Tetler, Sam Gardner, Pete Forte, Pete Samko, Julien Dumont and JP Collmus, as well as fullbacks Miller and Eric Eberhart, the Big Red blasted away at the tired defense of Avon as Seager ran the final 4 yards for the score. Then, as the defense stymied the home team again, the first big run of the day occurred as Evan Cook took off on a 64-yard gallop to pay dirt. With the score at 27-8 and the clock inside the five minute mark, it appeared over. BUT, Avon would "not go softly into the night." On the ensuing kickoff, the return man broke several tackles and raced 75 yards for the touchdown. After Avon scored its second two-point conversion of the day, the score was now 27-16 with still a lot of time on the clock.

     The Big Red offense took to the field and made short work of Avon's defense as Seager put the nail in the coffin as on the very first play. After their onside kick attempt failed, Mark broke free for a 51-yard TD. His third of the day, the PAT was good and with the score 34-16 with under two minutes left, it was over.

     Exeter (1-0) will travel to Worcester Academy to take on an excellent WA team next Saturday, 9/23, for a 1:30 PM kickoff.

     Thanks to all our fans, friends and family for putting an a great tailgate meal after a great victory!!!

"Go Big Red!" Submitted by Coach Glennon

     Big Red rallied to defeat Worcester Academy Saturday after falling behind 14-0 in the first half to a very talented and well coached WA team. But the boys from Exeter put together a great second half performance and grabbed the victory.

     The first quarter was mistake-filled as Worcester fumbled twice but lost only one of them and Exeter had a punt bounce off one of the Big Red return men for a turnover. Worcester had several penalties which hurt their drives as did Big Red. Both teams settled down as WA took a 7-0 lead into the second quarter and proceeded to up the margin to 14-0 late in the half. To the team’s credit, a good defensive stand lead by PG Joe Miller, senior Captains Evan Cook and Peter Forte allowed the offense to get the ball back and put together a great last minute drive. Led by the running of Mark Seager and with great protection from the offensive line of Forte, Pete Samko, Sam Gardner, Julien Dumont and Big Mike Tetler, QB Cam Ely hit J.D.Van Rossum on a 54-yard strike down inside the 10 yard line. With a loss of yardage on the next play and time running out in the first half, Exeter called a timeout. When play resumed, Ely found Seager open down the middle of the field for a 20-yard TD catch. The PAT was no good, but Exeter had stolen the momentum from the Hilltoppers, and headed into the half with the score Worcester-14, Exeter-6.

     Big Red came out in the second half and played inspired and hard hitting defense. WA fumbled twice more and the Big Red secondary picked off two passes from the Worcester QB, one by Garrett Nicholson and another by Max Alderman, in both cases stopping the Hilltoppers threat. After surrendering a safety to WA to increase their lead to 16-6, the offense took over. Ely found his big tight end J.P.Collmus for a huge 14-yard pick up. Evan Cook then rambled 27 yards down to the one-yard line as he hurdled over a Worcester defender on his way down the sideline. Ely finished off the drive with the one-yard plunge for the TD. Exeter then went for two and made it as Colin Doherty connected with Ely for the two-point conversion.

     The stage was now set as the defense continued its great second half play and shut down the offense of WA and gave Exeter one more shot. The leading ground gainer of the day, Mark Seager, had one more rush left in him as he bounced outside and raced all the way to the 9-yard line which set up kicker Mani Alaei for a chance to win it with a 24-yard field goal attempt. The former Exeter soccer player calmly booted his first career field goal and gave the Big Red our first lead of the day at 17-16 with four minutes to play. Worcester Academy was not finished yet. They put together a seven-play drive that ended in a missed field goal attempt with 41 seconds left. Exeter took a knee as the clocked ticked down to 00:00 and the celebration began as Exeter moved to 2-0 on the young season.

     A special thanks to Sheila and George Tetler for hosting a wonderful post game victory cookout at their home in Worcester. Parents, friends and relatives as well as the team were all appreciative of the hospitality and kindness!

Go Big Red!

     Next week at 4:00 PM come watch the 1st ever football game played in Phelps Stadium on the new state-of-the-art Field Turf against a strong Choate Team.

Submitted by Coach Glennon

          Big Red played their best game of the season in the new Phelps Stadium. Playing the first game in the history of the program on Exeter’s new synthetic field turf. Big Red took a liking to it and rolled up 21 first half points in route to a 35-0 lead. That advantage would hold up until 14 seconds left to play when Choate punched one in after what appeared to be an interception by Tom Timmers, was somehow rewarded to the receiver at the goal line. The Wild Boars ran it in on the next play and converted for 2 points and the final score stood at 35-8 in favor of Big Red.
     As convincing as the score appeared, the home town boys turned the ball over three times on fumbles. We did, however, force several fumbles by Choate to set up the offense in excellent field position. Big Red came out hitting against a very large and physical Choate team. Led by the linebacking corps of Joe Miller, Eric Eberhart and Kyle Flanagan, the Choate backs were punished the entire game. The secondary of Max Alderman, Garrett Nicholson, and BJ Lalonde thwarted the passing game of the visitors with several break-ups and some hard hitting tackling of their own. The key to the game was to own the line of scrimmage. 
     The D-Line comprised of Sam Gardner, Pete Forte and Pete Samko along with Mike Tetler, Julien Dumont and Brett Silverstein, (who recorded his first career points on a Safety, as he chased down the QB from behind and sacked him in the End Zone) dominated the front for a majority of the game. Also putting pressure on the QB all day were Eddie Williams and Evan Cook. Defensive coordinator Dick Eustis said,"We are running to the ball well and making some great hits but still need improvement to decrease the number of missed arm tackles.” 
     In his post-game comments, Coach G. said, “We still have a long way to go to be an excellent team, but we are improving each game both offensively and defensively. This is definitely our best defensive effort to date,” Glennon explained.“We had a couple of untimely penalties that could have been more costly, but we recovered well. Defensive line coach Colonel Chikala tells the troops to stay away from penalties because ‘dumb will kill ya.’”
     Big Red offense had another solid effort this week. "We need to make and maintain our blocks a little longer by the O-Line and our backs need to secure the ball better while fighting for the extra yardage," line coach Dr. Ted Davis said. The team had over 400 total yards on offense and Exeter spread the wealth by scoring five TD’s from five different players, one safety from two players and the PAT's by another. In all, eight different players put points on the board for Big Red. Leading the way in the rushing department were Mark Seager 1TD, Evan Cook 1TD, Cam Ely 1TD and Joe Miller with his first career TD in an Exeter uniform with a brilliant 52 yard jaunt. Ely was also on target all day with his passing as he rolled up over 200 yards in the air with the big play, coming on a 43-yard TD strike to JD Van Rossum. Van Rossum got behind the secondary and Ely hit Van Rossum in full stride for the six points. But the biggest reception of the day was made by JP Collmus as he made a spectacular catch with the defensive back draped all over him, and with a perfect strike by Ely, Collmus shook off a hit and broke free for a 47-yard gain to put us into great field position again. "The O-line has steadily improved game by game and we are gaining experience and depth week by week," commented Coach G. "But we still have to do a better job of giving our QB time to throw."
    In today's contest, every healthy and available player saw a good amount of action. With a fine performance in his debut, prep Christian Stevens recorded three tackles during the 4th quarter.
     A great and enthusiastic crowd filled Phelps Stadium for the beautiful late afternoon contest. The coaching staff and players would like to thank all of the families, fans and friends who support Big Red. Please come to Phelps Stadium next week for a 4:30 kickoff  against a very good and much-improved Loomis-Chaffee squad from Connecticut.
     Many thanks go out to several folks…
Dr. Eberhart for announcing the game.
Lower Joe Blundo for timing the contest.
Paul Savage videographer.
Malcolm Wesselink assistant video technician.
Keith Humphries and Roger Carbonneau for field preparations.
Our Athletic Trainers Breanne Piatt and Nate Wood.
Don McElreavy and Ellen Cahill, equipment managers.
Our chain gang, the law firm of Barbin, Barbin and Calley.
Rob Morris, Director of Athletics.
Submitted by Coach Glennon

     Exeter's defense jumped all over Loomis Chaffee in the first 4 minutes of the contest while the offense capitalized and turned them into two early touchdowns. Dave Seager and Evan Cook took turns lugging the pigskin all afternoon as each one scored on the first two drives of the day. Seager made his count on a short burst up the middle while Cook took it outside for a nice 31- yard scamper. While the crowd was still settling into their seats, Exeter raced to the 14-0 lead. Loomis uses a fast-paced, no-huddle offense that the Big Red defense had prepared for all week. They were forced to change their game plan and went to a ball-control, slow-pace attack to keep the ball away from the quick-strike attack of the Big Red offense. Defensive coordinator Dick Eustis made the proper adjustments as the boys responded to the change of offense and allowed the Pelicans only one field goal through three quarters of play. The lone Loomis touchdown came after an Evan Cook fumble deep in our own territory with Exeter up by thirty at the time.
     The team defense was just short of spectacular for the first half. Led by linebackers Joe Miller, Kyle Flanagan and Eric Eberhart, the Big Red "D" stymied Loomis and forced them into two early fumbles and countless short yardage gains. The defensive end play of both Evan Cook and Eddie Williams was crucial to many hurried pass attempts and bad decisions. The talented QB from Loomis was harassed and the excellent running back from Loomis, Scott Roman, was bottled up for the half. Excellent tackles by Garrett Nicholson at the corner and Peter Forte and Brett Silverstein at the tackles were also keys to the defensive play. Max Alderman picked off a Loomis pass in the second half and with a great return put Exeter in position for another score.
     There were many highlights on offense for the day, which included Cam Ely (1TD, passing) with another great passing performance, Evan Cook (101 yds rushing, 1 TD), Joe Miller (1 TD) and J.D. Van Rossum with key receptions. Capping off a great day was Mark Seager.                     
     Seager rushed for 4 TD's and 227 yards. Behind the blocking of Sam Gardner and "Big" Mike Tetler, Seager outraced the Loomis defense for a 91-yard run to pay-dirt. With the score 33-3 still in the third quarter, Exeter substituted freely and all players contributed.
     The final score of 40-10 was the reward for a good hard week of preparation and raised the Big Reds record to 4-0.
     I would again like to thank all of the parents for the Friday Night Team dinner in the TAD Jones room. Great food, fun and friendship were shared by all. The boys are looking forward to this weeks' event on Friday night before we take the "House" on the road to Northfield Mt. Hermon.
     Eddie Williams’ (DE) grandparents receives this weeks kudos for traveling all the way from Wisconsin to be a part of the dinner and enjoying the game.
     Congratulations to this week’s "Raider of the Week " Christian Stevens (WR/DB and Class of '10) for his hard practice all week and his TD in last week's JV contest. Previous winners of the award this year have been Matt Migliozzi '07, Grant DeRoo '08, and Josh Taillon '07.
     Congratulations to all. The "Raider of the Week" makes us a better team. The epitome: "The team benefits from the individual."
     Many thanks again go out to all the support staff who make it possible for players and fans to enjoy the contest. A special thank you to Niko Furnald (WR/DB/K '08,) who is injured, but took action photos of the Loomis Game which will appear on the football page this week.
     Thanks to Ryan Glennon '00 for the use of the digital camera.
     Thanks to Don "Mac" McElreavy for the digital video equipment.
     Please go to the web site for updated football information.
**************PLEASE NOTE **************
                     GAME TIME CHANGE
************3:45 PM KICKOFF*************
      Hope you can all join us at NMH for the contest in beautiful western Massachusetts.  Submitted by Coach Glennon

     After racing to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, Exeter never looked back. First, two Cam Ely to JD Van Rossum touchdown passes of 27 and 29 yards and then, adding a 6 yard TD dash of his own, was Mark Seager. Ely ended up a perfect 6-6 on the day for 143 yards while Seager went over the 100-yard mark again, adding 4 more TD's in the process. Exeter took the wind out of the Hogger's Parents' Weekend sail when Seager added three more scores, two in the second quarter and one in the second half, for the final total of 41. Mani Alaei added five PAT's during the contest.
      The defense came out flying and were swarming the NMH ball carriers all game long. When NMH went to the air, the "D" adjusted and came away with six interceptions on the day. Led by Joe Miller with three, B.J. Lalonde, Mark Seager and Pete Samko all contributed one apiece. Evan Cook harassed the talented QB from Mount Hermon with pressure during the game.
     With a score of 35-0 and three minutes left in the first half, Exeter was able to rest all of the starters on both offense and defense for the remainder of the game. The reserves played well with the defensive line and defensive ends leading the way with the fine play of Jason Orloff at DE and Nick Mancini at inside linebacker. Prep Christian Stevens logged some quality minutes at free safety.
     The Hoggers never did quit. Under the guidance of veteran Coach Mike Atkins, they were well-prepared and played hard and defensively to the very end as they returned a fumble for a TD, and on offense, completed a long pass for a touchdown near the end of the contest.
    An excellent win over a well-coached and talented NMH squad.
     Thanks to all the parents and friends who put on a tailgate fit for royalty. Quality time was spent with all and enjoyed and appreciated by the players and coaches.
      It is now on to Deerfield, a tough and very athletic team. The Big Red will host the Big Green in Phelps Stadium this Saturday on Parent's Weekend at 3 PM.
     Congratulations to this week's Raider of the Week Max Morse, OL/DL and Kicker.
Submitted by Coach Glennon