Eagles come alive in third period to down Avon Lake, 15-5

When Avon’s girls lacrosse team came out Tuesday and scored two goals in the opening 46 seconds, it appeared the Eagles were going to romp their way past rival and host Avon Lake.

Avon did eventually roll to a 15-5 victory to up its record to 7-1, but it didn’t come as easily as the opening moments seemed to predict. Instead, the Eagles had to battle through a scoreless streak that lasted 18 minutes, 27 seconds before finally taking control.

“Our defense bailed us out tonight, kept it tight,” said coach Erich Frombach. “They were the real heroes of the game. It gave us a chance to figure out some things, and then we were able to play well in the third quarter.”

Thanks to the defense, Avon never trailed, but the Eagles only led by three, 4-1, at halftime. That’s because they went away from when they did in the opening minute and what they’ve done all season—share the ball.

“(Avon Lake) played really good defense, and we were just out of sync,” Frombach said. “We didn’t make good adjustments as coaches. We were standing around and waiting for people to drive. We turned the ball over, and then we started trying to make perfect passes and those were just really sloppy.”

But the third quarter was a different story. Avon scored seven times in the period while holding Avon Lake to three goals. The Eagles led by as many as nine, 11-2, before the Shoregals scored twice late in the period to cut it to 11-4.

“I think we came out of our little funk and worked on passing the ball and not just driving,” said junior attack Lia Kemper, who scored twice in the opening minute of the period and was one of three Avon players with three goals on the night.

According to junior midfielder Ella Schaffer, who had three goals and two assists, the turnaround after halftime went back to the talk that the team had during the break.

“Coach Frombach just amped us up,” she said. “He was like, ‘You got this. These are your rivals and you’re going to beat them.’ He just really believed in us, and we went out there believing that we could beat them. I feel like that’s what helped us.”

It also helped that the Eagles were dominant on the draws that occurred after each goal. Avon won nearly two-thirds of them thanks to the work of freshman Brailynn Parker, who also had two goals and an assist.

“When you can possess the ball, you obviously have an advantage,” Frombach said. “Our circle did a really good job of tracking down those balls. That was a huge advantage. I think that swung the momentum in the third quarter, because in the first half, (Avon Lake) played really well.”

Despite the long scoring drought, by the end of the game the Eagles were back to form, as seven girls scored goals and they reached double figures in goals for the eighth consecutive game. Kemper, Schaffer and Ashlyn Hider all had three goals, Parker and Mia Della Vella each had two, and Ava Schaffer and Piper Guhde had single tallies.

“Over the course of the season, I think we’ve had six or seven girls score in every game,” Frombach said. “That’s been a big part of what we’re doing, getting people involved and being unselfish, not depending on one or two girls.”

Once the offense got going, Avon put the game away and when Guhde scored with 17 seconds to play, it gave the Eagles bragging rights to say they beat their rivals by double digits.

“It’s a big deal in our schools, big deal for their school,” Frombach said. “I told the girls before the game that this was important to the senior class, that they go out winning on this field. And they came through. We have 14 awesome seniors, and I’m glad they got to experience that.”