Eagles dominate North Ridgeville, earn spot in regional semifinal

For the second time this season, Avon’s boys soccer team rolled past North Ridgeville, this time by a score of 6-1 in a Division II district final at Parma’s Byers Field. Earlier in the season, the Eagles defeated Ridgeville, 4-1, on their way to an undefeated season in Southwestern Conference play. Brock Harman had two goals and an assist, London Carnie had two goals and Cole Veverka and Mateo Muratore each had single tallies as Avon upped its record to 13-2-3. The Eagles last won a district crown in 2021. “It’s a goal every season,” said coach Chris Dore. “Whether or not it’s a reality, it’s a goal that we set every year in our program. We’ve struggled the last few years as far as getting to the standard of competing and playing for the district, but this season I feel much better about our season. We’re playing really well right now, and I think this is the most important time to be playing well.” Next on the schedule for Avon is a regional semifinal matchup with sixth-seeded Walsh Jesuit Wednesday at Tallmadge High School. Walsh Jesuit, 14-2-4, won its district championship with a 2-1 victory over Stow. The Eagles have now scored 65 goals on the season, an average of better than three per outing. “Out of my 19 years here, this is the second-highest goal scoring team that we’ve had,” said Dore. “And the reason is, there’s more than one guy who does it. There’s multiple guys who can score goals. We move the ball well, we find the open player. We also play pretty attractive soccer compared to some of the teams that we’ve had in the past.” Harman, the team’s leading scorer with 18 goals, opened the scoring less than 5 minutes into the match, giving the Eagles an early leg up. After Veverka made it 2-0, Harman scored with just 8 seconds remaining in the first half, connecting on a 25-yard blast that went to the upper right corner. Carnie scored both of his goals in the second half, giving him 16 for the campaign. He and Harman are tied for the team lead in scoring with 38 points (two points for a goal and one for an assist). Muratore’s goal came after a free kick by Harman that was saved but not secured and bounced right to the junior. “I feel like it’s really good that other people get to get in and score, too,” said Harman. “I don’t want to be the only one who can score.” Carnie’s second goal came just 61 seconds after his first and came on a spinning shot that saw him take the ball out of the air and blast it with his left foot into the lower right corner, giving Avon a 6-0 lead. Valentino Cruzado headed the ball to Carnie, who did the rest. “I saw Tino head it up into the air,” he said. “I saw space, and I saw the corner of the goal. I was like, ‘Why not have a hit?’ and I just volleyed it into the bottom corner. I didn’t even know it went in until the fans started cheering.” All that was left for the Eagles was to try to preserve their five-game shutout string. However, North Ridgeville put an end to that with just 4:50 remaining in the match. Goalie Tyler Ferguson, who had just entered the game in relief of Oliver Dobrovic, made a great save on a point-blank shot, but the ball bounced right to Nelson Perez, who put it into the nets. The Eagles were disappointed to give up a goal, but the fact remains that they have outscored their opponents, 26-1, in their last six matches. “One of our objectives is not to give up goals,” said Dore. “In this tournament, that’s a lofty objective. It just kind of gives us something not to be satisfied about. You know, things happen for a reason. Now I can talk about how I’m not happy about giving up a goal.”