Division I football: Exeter scores 16 unanswered points in 16-7 win over Dover

EXETER - Less than a minute into the game, the Exeter High School football team trailed Dover, 7-0 following Syncere Bailey's 47-yard touchdown run.

The Blue Hawks didn't panic. Instead, they scored 16 unanswered points and forced three Green Wave turnovers en route to a 16-7 regular-season finale in a Division I battle at Exeter High School.

"(Dover) is explosive and is a really, really good team," Exeter head coach Bill Ball said. "A terrific effort by our guys. I couldn't be prouder today. That's as fine an effort as we've had in a while. We needed everything to go right, and we hung tough. That was great, it was awesome."

Exeter improved to 6-2, while Dover fell to 5-3.

"It was great, great feeling," Exeter's Sean DeLello said. "Everyone working hard, a lot of people stepping up. We had a lot of injuries and we have a lot of people stepping up in practice doing well. Saw it out here today and we played great."

Here are the five highlights from Exeter's win.

Syncere Bailey gives Dover a quick lead

Dover's first play of the game went for 14 yards. Bailey was in the end zone on the next play, finishing off a 47-yard score to give the Green Wave a 7-0 lead just 34 seconds into the game.

"He's an energetic kid, he had a similar play in the opening drive last week against Concord," Dover head coach Eric Cumba said. "He's great at getting us going and starting a game like that, especially the last couple of weeks."

Bailey finished with 86 yards on 10 carries for the Green Wave, who struggled to string together more drives the rest of the night.

"We moved the ball OK," Cumba said. "We just couldn't finish our drives and ultimately it caught up to us in the second half."

Dover had just two drives in the second half. The first ended on Ryder Aubin's incomplete pass on fourth-and-5 from the Exeter 48. The Green Wave fumbled the ball on their final drive.

Exeter's Tanner Smith's delivers huge strip sack

The Green Wave held a 7-3 lead, and were driving down the field, one of the drives Cumba mentioned about good ball movement, but being unable to finish.

Starting at its own 5, Dover was now facing a second-and-10 at the Exeter 34. Aubin dropped back to throw, but Exeter's Tanner Smith came from Aubin's blind side and delivered a hit on the quarterback, forcing a fumble that teammate Eli Beem recovered.

"Defense wins games, and I feel like today was a pretty good representation of how we play Blue Hawk football on Eustis Field," Issac Beem said.

"Big play, huge play," Ball said.

Exeter inserting its will

Coming out of the half down 7-3, the Blue Hawks put together one of their typical time-consuming drives.

Exeter went on a 13-play, 64-yard drive - all runs, that finished with a 4-yard run by DeLollo to give Exeter a 9-7 lead. The PAT was blocked by Dover's Liam Gannon.

"I walked into that (huddle), and everyone was like 'it's to you Sean, you're scoring this," DeLollo said. "I was like 'yes sir, I'm getting this one, I promise you boys.' I ran it straight into the end zone, the best feeling ever."

DeLollo had 12 yards on four carries on the drive, and finished with 27 yards on eight carries.

Exeter picked up five first downs on the drive, and along with DeLollo, Tyler Bland had four attempts for 24 yards, Daniel Batstone had 22 yards on five carries, and quarterback Jack Bove had a 6-yard carry.

The scoring drive took over 7 minutes off the clock, and gave Exeter a lead it wouldn't relinquish.

"We just talked about trying to keep (Dover) off of the field," Ball said. "If we have (the ball), they don't. It was a really good effort by our guys. I'll be honest, I couldn't be prouder right now."

"(That touchdown) got us going, we weren't stopping there," Exeter's Tyler Graney said.

Batstone had 18 carries for 130 yards, while Bland had 85 yards on 14 carries.

Exeter increases lead

After Dover's Tucker Johnson missed a 37-yard field goal attempt, Exeter got the ball back but had to punt which was downed at the 1.

The first two plays was a 3-yard run by Aubin and a run by Bailey for no gain. Then on third down, Aubin was sacked by Samuel St. Onge at the 2.

But with being backed up in the end zone, Dover's punt hit the back of one of the blockers, and Exeter's Erik Manger recovered the ball in the end zone for the touchdown and 16-7 lead.

"We thought we had a safety for a second," Beem said. "But, I'd much rather prefer the touchdown that we ended up having. But, Erik Manger he's a dog, he's underrated. He's just a kid who knows how to work and doesn't know when to let up."

Bland ices game for Blue Hawks

Trailing 16-7, Dover still had time left to attempt a rally with roughly 6 minutes left and started a drive at its own 35. But the Exeter defense forced a turnover on downs, with Bland's pass break-up on fourth down.

Exeter gave the ball right back on a fumble, but Bland wasn't done on the defensive side of the ball.

Aubin connected with Bryce Carberry for a 50-yard gain to the Exeter 6, but Bland picked off Aubin in the end zone on second down.

"It's never over," Ball said. "(Bland) made a big play in the end zone. He played a heck of a game, too. Really good game, really good game."

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Exeter football beats Dover in Division I regular-season finale