Eagles completely shut down Amherst, Avon Lake is next

When you’re chasing a second consecutive state championship and a 10th consecutive conference championship, the last thing you need is some extra motivation. But Mike Elder didn’t get the Avon football program to where it is by ignoring an opportunity that presents itself. During the week leading up to Friday’s Southwestern Conference tilt at Amherst, a local reporter posted on X that Amherst quarterback Cy Christensen was the third quarterback in Lorain County history to pass for more than 7,000 yards in his high school career. Furthermore, it would take 88 yards against the Eagles for him to move into second behind Dustin Crum of Midview. That was just the fuel that Elder needed, and the Eagles responded, putting together their second consecutive shutout and third in four games, completely shutting down the Comets in a 34-0 victory. Avon, now 7-1 overall and 5-0 in SWC play, held Amherst to just 47 yards of offense, and Christensen, who transferred to Amherst this year after playing at Clearview for three years, completed only 4 of 13 passes for 10 yards. It’s not known exactly what Elder said to his troops, but the message was clear: not on our watch. “That kid’s a great kid,” he said. “I’m not taking anything away from him. But our kids were inspired to not (let him) move to No. 2. Not yet. He will. He’s a great player, and we know that. But our kids were really excited about playing one of the top quarterbacks in the county. He’s one of the top quarterbacks and we were able to hold him to, like, 10 yards, so that was pretty awesome.” According to linebacker Ryan Stolarski, the key for the Avon defense was to keep Christensen guessing. “We saw his career stats, like he’s about to be No. 2, so we knew what we were up against,” he said. “Our coaches, I think their game plan for this game was incredible. I think we definitely confused their offense and executed at a high level. We put in some fake blitzes, so it was messing with him a little bit. He didn’t know if we were coming or not.” As a result, Christensen’s longest completion of 6 yards came on his first pass of the game, which came during Amherst’s longest possession, which covered 22 yards, included two first downs, and ended when Avon’s Caden Clapham jumped a short slant route and intercepted the pass. After that, the Comets had only one more first down and a string of five possessions that consisted of three plays and a punt. “We have the best defense, I would say, in the state of Ohio,” said Avon quarterback Blake Elder. “When we get the ball in four plays, and we get all these possessions, I mean, we’re just bound to score every drive.” In fact, that’s almost what the Eagles did, as they never had to punt. Leading the way was Elder, who was impressively efficient, completing 20 of 26 passes for 250 yards and three touchdowns. It’s been a breakout season for the coach’s son who had to wait in the wings last year as Nolan Good led Avon to the Division II state championship. “He did a nice job tonight,” said Mike Elder. “I’m proud of him. He had to wait his turn, right? He hasn’t thrown for 7,000 yards or all those things, but he’s proven that he had to be patient, and when you give him time—for which he would credit his offensive line—he’s got a lot of weapons out there. He’s blessed to be part of a really good offense.” Two of Elder’s TD passes were to fellow senior Grant Barr, who had eight receptions for 86 yards. The other scoring pass was to Fin Jerdonek, who also had a long punt return that he nearly broke for a TD and led to a 3-yard scoring run by Adrian Ramirez. Avon’s other 10 points were scored by senior kicker Jensen Petro, who was perfect on four PAT kicks and also connected on field goals covering 45 and 35 yards. Which gets us to Avon’s next game, its rival game against Avon Lake. The teams will meet Friday at Avon, which has the Eagles eager with anticipation. According to Mike Elder, the fact that the Shoremen lost to North Ridgeville Friday, 31-14, is irrelevant. “I want to make no mistake about this,” he said. “The Shoremen are our rivals. When I got to Avon 19 years ago, they were the standard, and deservedly so, and I set our sights and goals to become what they had under coach (Dave) Dlugosz. I feel like we’ve done a good job of trying to accomplish that. “But this game is a rivalry game. I’ve won games when I think I have the lesser team, and I’ve lost games when I think I have the better team. So, I don’t care what the records are. I don’t know what they did tonight, and I don’t care. When you’re playing the Shoremen, you better be ready to play.”