The Exeter Eagles remain one of the top teams across the Lancaster-Lebanon League and District 3 year after year, and that shouldn’t change in 2026.
In the preseason rankings for Class 5A, Pennsylvania Football News ranked the Eagles seventh, one spot ahead of fellow Berks County squad Twin Valley.
Exeter has qualified for the last five District 3 playoffs, with their last title coming in 2021 with a 31-28 victory over Gov. Mifflin.
The Eagles are eager to reach those heights again after being defeated by Bishop McDevitt the past two seasons, 42-0 in the quarterfinals last year and 48-14 in the championship in 2024.
Heading into 2026, the Eagles did lose five LL first team selections, but are confident others will step up.
“I’d say a big thing, a big cultural piece for us at Exeter is that we don’t retreat, we don’t fall back, we reload,” senior lineman Matt Lis said at the Lancaster-Lebanon League media day in early August. “I’m excited for a bunch of guys that we have coming up.”
Exeter will have a new quarterback at the helm in Week One at Gov. Mifflin as Riley Martinez and Jacob Hafer both graduated.
The Eagles have a three-way quarterback competition in camp to decide who will earn the job.
All juniors, Xavier Mercado, Aidan Gerhart and Stephon Fuller are among those competing as they’ll have big shoes to fill.
Martinez, now at Duquesne University, shined in Reiffton when healthy, throwing for 2,821 yards and 38 touchdowns in his career.
Offensive line coach Chris Badinger said the staff will likely make a decision on who will start the season after their scrimmage with Blue Mountain on Saturday, Aug. 22.
In the backfield, the Eagles plan to have a committee of three, possibly four, running backs to try to combine for the production of Leo Brown last season.
The senior had record numbers in his lone season as a starter with 2,444 yards and 28 touchdowns on 281 carries, a whopping 8.69 yards per touch.
“You don’t replace a guy like Leo (Brown) overnight, but with what we do up front and how physical we like to play and run the football, we feel pretty confident that our team totals can match that,” Badinger said.
Highlighting the group, however, will be senior Josh Jackson, who had 19 carries last season, going for 181 yards and three scores.
“Last year, I don’t think I got the carries I wanted, but getting to sit behind and just learn gives me the edge to want to go and play as hard as I can every single Friday,” Jackson said. “And getting to run behind this great line is going to be very fun.”
In their 10 wins, the Eagles won by an average margin of 33 points and fell to just Hempfield and Conestoga Valley in the regular season before beating the Section 2 rival Pioneers in the playoffs for the second consecutive season.
The rivalry is one the Eagles mark on their calendars every year, and they know they’ll be fighting for a section title yet again with the Pioneers.
“They’re a really strong team. They push us hard,” senior defensive back Nick Pashley said. “I feel like we could have beaten them both years that we lost to them in the regular season, but we just came up short. How heated we got after we lost pushed us to beat them in the playoffs.”
It should be another promising year for the Exeter Eagles in Section 2.
Exeter
Coach: Matt Bauer, 18th season, 135-61.
Last Year’s Record: 5-1 Lancaster-Lebanon Section 2, 10-3.
Key Players Lost: QB Riley Martinez, QB/DB Jake Hafer, RB Leo Brown, LB Jackson Kozik, WR/DB Jayden Ware, LB Aidan Dauble, OL/DE Joel Ummarino.
Key Players Returning: RB Josh Jackson, TE/LB Braylon Reinert, LB Donovyn Alvarez, C/DE Matt Lis, OL/DL Kevin Oswalt, DB Nick Pashley, OL Wyatt Richard.
3 Keys to Success
QB situation: Heading into camp with a quarterback battle can be tricky. Splitting reps, getting into a rhythm and having teammates potentially choose sides can be detrimental. It’s important for one of the juniors to take the reins early on so the Eagles know who their guy is moving forward.
Big men win at the line of scrimmage: The biggest key to an excellent running attack, while also keeping a young quarterback upright, is having a solid group of big guys up front. Returners such as Matt Lis, Kevin Oswalt and Wyatt Richard will have to take command and lead a rather inexperienced backfield.
Edge out close games: Exeter’s two losses to Hempfield and Conestoga Valley were decided by just six points combined. Bauer’s squad has the talent and smarts to come away with tight victories, and that experience could prove valuable deep in the District 3 playoffs.
Schedule: Aug. 28, at Norristown; Sept. 4, Spring-Ford; Sept. 11, at William Penn; Sept. 18, Ephrata; Sept. 25, Gov. Mifflin; Oct. 2, at Elizabethtown; Oct. 9, at Lebanon; Oct. 16, Muhlenberg; Oct. 23, Twin Valley; Oct. 30, at Conestoga Valley.
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