EXETER – Exeter Hawks forward Jake Jeffrey stood in a hallway outside the Hawks dressing room Sunday night, a few minutes removed from a 4-1 playoff win over the Mt. Brydges Bulldogs.

The Hawks had hammered Mt. Brydges 7-2 the night before and held a 2-0 lead in their first-round series.

Someone asked how Jeffrey feels at this point in the best-of-seven, with two early wins against a team with the SOJHL’s third-best regular-season record.

“Long way to go,” he said. “Long way to go. They have enough firepower to score in bunches, and they caught us off-guard in the first 30 minutes (of Sunday’s game).

“If they keep bringing that, it’s going to be a tough next two games.”

Indeed, Mt. Brydges isn’t expected to go down quickly, and the Hawks do not anticipate an easy ride.

“By no means do we expect this to be a short series,” said Hawks head coach Jeff MacLean in a separate interview. “We’ve got the upper hand right now, but we all know and we’ve all seen it happen time and time again, where teams can come back.”

The Bulldogs appeared to play with a chip on their shoulder Sunday night, controlling the play for much of the first period and allowing few scoring chances for Exeter.

Hawks forward Justin Reid opened the scoring near the 10-minute mark but Mt. Brydges’ Jamie Morgan tied the game about a minute later, and Exeter’s offence was rendered largely ineffective until the break.

The tables turned in the second period, which saw Hawks forward Steve Gingerich and Jeffrey find the net and put Exeter ahead 3-1.

Jeffrey scored an empty-netter late in the third to secure the victory, and Exeter goalie Gregg Dodds stopped several Bulldogs scoring chances, making 29 saves.

“We knew they were going to come out strong, and we just kind of had to weather the storm a little bit,” MacLean said. “We probably weren’t as prepared as we should have been at the start of that game, but as the second got going we got better.

“We’re going to have good periods and bad, and luckily we were just able to weather the storm in the first and were able to go forward after that.”

Saturday night’s game saw the Hawks leading 1-0 after the first period thanks to a goal from Matt Dawdy and 3-1 after the second, thanks to markers from Jeffrey and Jordan Brohman.

Gingerich, Brent Rae (2) and Jeffrey each scored in the final frame, making the score 7-2 Exeter. Dodds faced 39 shots and saved 37 in the win.

“Friday night we got some breaks that led to goals, so the first game probably wasn’t really a 7-2 game, but it definitely was a convincing win for us,” MacLean said.

“For any team to be successful your goaltending has to be great, and so far we’ve got that from Gregg,” MacLean added later. “We know that Gregg is capable of this, and this is what we hope for and I’m sure that’s what he hoped for.”

MacLean’s stated goal is to win an Ontario championship in the Hawks’ 50th anniversary season, but said there are plenty of games needed to be won in order to achieve that objective.

“Our focus is going to be to try to play our game and limit their chances, and ultimately we want to win the next game, too,” he said.

The series resumes this coming Saturday in Mt. Brydges at 7:30 p.m., with Game 4 set for Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at the South Huron Recreation Centre.