Eagles break away from Avon Lake, clinch tie of SWC crown

Mike Elder has faced arch-rival Avon Lake 20 times in his tenure as Avon’s head football coach. He can tell you exactly how many he’s lost, but he’s unsure of how many he’s won, which tells you all you need to know about this rivalry. The 20th matchup occurred on Friday night, with the Eagles coming up with three huge red zone stops before eventually pulling away to a 43-12 victory. Avon is now 8-1 on the season, 7-0 in Southwestern Conference play. The Eagles have clinched at least a tie for their 10th consecutive SWC crown, and a victory next Friday at Elyria would give them the outright title. All of that is important, but the focus during Avon’s Senior Night affair was clearly the Shoremen. “Kudos to the Shoremen,” said Elder. “This is a rivalry game, and it was everything you would expect in a rivalry game. Some people will look at the (final) scoreboard, and they won’t recognize how hard-fought this contest was. You can never overlook a rival. We have a countdown clock, and then there’s a highlight reel that plays 24/7 in our locker room that points to this game. We’ve made this game important. Our kids understand that.” Indeed. “This game is huge,” said senior Caden Clapham. “We preach it all the time. It’s one of our goals: beat our rivals, win conference, win state. The players before us taught us why this game is so important. The preparation this week, the energy, everything was great. I was so proud of our guys, so proud of our seniors on Senior Night.” Clapham made one of the key defensive plays in the game, but more on that later. First, let’s get back to the rivalry. “This is the 46th meeting, and we’re 26-20, and that counts six-man football games as well,” said Elder. “The series started in 1956, and ‘56 to ’60 they beat us. We were 0-5. In 2007 it was the first time playing them for me, and my record is either 14-5 or 15-5. I know the five because I know every time I lost this game because it hurt.” Elder actually is now 15-5 against Avon Lake. Ironically, he almost didn’t get the chance to reach that record following a playoff upset loss to the Shoremen after Avon had won the regular-season matchup by more than three touchdowns. “In 2016 we lost to them in the playoffs, 27-26, and the community wanted to fire me,” said Elder. “The interesting thing is, after I got over the hurt of it, I loved it because I knew people cared and you want people to care.” For the first time in the history of the rivalry, Avon has won four consecutive times, something special for this year’s seniors. “It feels great,” said senior linebacker Ryan Stolarski. “Beating our rival four years in a row is a big accomplishment. I’m glad our class was the first to do it.” Stolarski and Clapham combined on perhaps the key play of the game. Late in the second quarter, with Avon holding a 21-9 lead, Avon Lake drove deep into Avon territory. There was a chaotic stretch that saw not only the game clock stop working but also consecutive unsportsmanlike calls against the Avon coaching staff following what appeared to be a broken thumb injury to Jakob Weatherspoon. As a result, the Shoremen had a first down on the 1-yard line with 12 seconds remaining. With so little time on the clock and the running game not being very productive, Avon Lake decided to go with a pass play to Air Force commit Aiden Stewart in the right corner of the end zone. “I was blitzing off the edge,” said Stolarski. “I saw the QB about to throw it, and I got a hand on it. Then, my teammate was in great position to make the interception. That was a huge play for us.” The tipped pass went right into Clapham’s arms with 7 seconds left in the half. “I was one-on-one on the sideline with their guy, who I think is their best player,” he said. “I was manned up, so I knew he was going to try to make a play. I just had to keep my leverage, let him try, and then force him back outside, chest-to-chest with him, and then go up and make a play.” Thus, instead of the Eagles going into the locker room with a tenuous 21-16 lead, they maintained their 21-9 advantage. Avon Lake took the opening kickoff of the second half right down the field, getting all the way to the Avon 1 before the Eagles stiffened. The Shoremen ran three running plays that were pushed backward, and on fourth and goal from the 5, they chose to settle for a 22-yard field goal by Stewart, his second of the game. In total, Avon Lake moved the ball deep into Avon territory four times and only managed to score 12 points on one touchdown and two field goals. Another Lake drive was thwarted on fourth down on the Avon 13 when Trevor Maly broke up a pass attempt. “I want to praise my teammates for staying locked in, doing what they do and making big stops on the goal line and in the red zone,” said Clapham. “In our preparation all week, we knew what we were doing. We knew what we had to do, knew the game plan. But in a rivalry game, the other team’s not going to just come in sleepwalking knowing they’re going to get beat. You can’t go in thinking you’re going to beat them.” While the defense played its usual dominant game, quarterback Blake Elder was spectacular, completing 14 of 15 passes for 337 yards and five touchdowns. The one incompletion was a catchable ball that bounced off the receiver’s hands. Elder’s touchdown passes were for 41 and 24 yards to Grant Barr, 72 and 8 yards to Fin Jerdonek, and 24 yards to Caeden Bennett. Avon’s other touchdown was on a 2-yard run by Michael Colburn, who lost a fumble on the game’s second play—leading to Avon Lake taking a 6-0 lead—but came back to finish the night with 72 yards on 15 carries. Avon finishes the regular season with a road game at Elyria. According to the website JoeEitel.com, the Eagles already have clinched a top-four spot in the Division II, Region 6 rankings, meaning they are guaranteed a bye in the first round and a home game in the second round. “Beating our rivals is a goal, and by doing so, we got at least a share of the conference championship,” said Mike Elder. “We’re going to celebrate that tonight, play Elyria next week, hopefully win an outright title, and then enjoy a bye week before we try to take this thing as far as we can.”