Eagles return to state semifinals with 1-0 victory over Lakewood

MACEDONIA, Ohio—Last year, on Avon’s run to the state championship in boys soccer, Owen Huron was a third-string goalkeeper with two seniors in front of him.

Fast forward to this year, and the senior was standing on the artificial turf at Nordonia High School Sunday, clutching the Division II regional championship trophy his team had just won with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Lakewood. The 16-1-3 Eagles next face Toledo St. Francis in a state semifinal at Clyde High School at 7 p.m. Wednesday. St. Francis defeated Kings Mills Kings, 3-0, in their regional final. Kings was state runner-up to Avon last year.

When asked how it feels to be returning to the state semifinals, Huron broke into a huge smile. “It’s definitely different, a big change for sure,” he said. “It’s exciting, especially because I’m actually playing now. It’s going to be fun. Another game with my boys is always fun.”

In general, Huron’s “boys” refers to the entire Avon team. But specifically, it refers to the Eagles defense, which has been the standout aspect of a squad that is hoping to win a second consecutive state championship. The victory over Lakewood was the 13th shutout of the season for Avon, which has allowed just one goal in the past eight matches, a stretch that covers more than a month.

The starting defenders are Cole Veverka, Vincent Palumbo, Andrew Mikes and Ghassan Mossolly, with Kyle Hollowell coming in off the bench. Hollowell was a starter last year but suffered an injury early this season and has had to work his way back into the rotation.

“My defense, I owe it all to them,” Huron said. “They’re stopping everything, putting their bodies on the line, for sure. We practice strong defense every single day. Coach wants us to step to every ball, step through your man, win every ball, win every tackle. The defense has just been super solid with that. Cole and Vincent, they win every ball. I rarely see them get beat in the back.”

The Eagles have been especially stingy during the postseason, winning their four matches by the combined score of 13-0.

“Our back line, I mean, they’re awesome to watch,” said coach Chris Dore. “I hate the fact that sometimes we have to watch them perform too much, but when they do get the opportunity, they shine. We have a really good back line, and I feel good anytime we step on the field with those guys out there.”

The only goal of the match came within the first 10 minutes, with Valentino Cruzado doing the honors off a beautiful assist from Veverka. The junior had the ball on the Avon half of the field and sent a long through ball that Cruzado caught up to in open space and then sent into the nets.

“I see Cole playing through balls like that all the time,” Cruzado said. “I saw him make eye contact with me, and it was perfectly placed for me to finish it. I think we were all dialed in, just ready for moments like that. I came into this game thinking, ‘How can I leave my mark?’ and I think I stepped up to that moment.”

Then, it was up to the defense. Avon likes to play a possession game, starting with the ball on its defensive end and then moving forward with movement and precise passing. But on this occasion, especially in the second half, Lakewood out possessed the possession team. However, part of it was by design.

The Rangers spent a lot of time passing the ball among their defenders but not really moving forward. Lakewood was running large chunks of time off the clock, and Avon was content to let it happen. Sometimes the Eagles would pressure the ball and sometimes they would sit back and let the clock run down. If and when Lakewood got the ball across midfield, that’s when Avon would pounce, allowing the Rangers very few opportunities to score.

“That was okay with us,” Dore said. “It was hard to try to get the attention of the players, when to go pressure the ball and when to sit back. But it was okay with us. I mean, if anybody’s going to have the ball at their feet on their team, we wanted their defenders to have it. If we get too spread out, that’s when they’re really good at moving off the ball and creating trouble.”

Lakewood only had two shots on goal for the entire match, but that didn’t really alleviate the tension level that is typical of a 1-0 match. According to Dore, it also was typical of an Avon-Lakewood encounter.

“We’ve had a good record against Lakewood, but not one game has come easy,” he said. “We’ve had good success in terms of results, but it’s almost always a game like this where they make us work for it, and we just find the edge to get ahead and to hold the lead.”