Showing their depth, Eagles ramble past Midview, 52-0

Three important things happened for the Avon football team in Friday’s Homecoming victory over Midview: 1. They won. After bursting to a 45-0 halftime lead, Avon scored one more time in a second half that was played in its entirety with a running clock, eventually taking a 52-0 victory. The Eagles are now 6-1 overall and 4-0 in Southwestern Conference play. 2. They played a ton of players, including some who saw the field in a varsity game for the first time. Ten different Eagles had at least one rushing attempt, five different players attempted at least one pass, and eight different players scored points, including kicker Jensen Petro, who was perfect on six PAT kicks and also split the uprights on a 37-yard field goal. 3. Nobody got hurt. That’s especially important for a team that is hoping to repeat as state champions but has already lost one of its best defensive backs and its top two running backs, although it is hoped that both Quiante Smith and Cam Wendell will return during the postseason. It was stunning just how dominant Avon was able to be against a team that entered the game with a 3-3 mark, including a 28-24 loss the previous week to 6-1 North Ridgeville. Despite the loss to Avon—the fourth in a row for Midview—the Middies remain in the hunt for a playoff spot in Division III, Region 10, sitting in the 13th spot, with the top 12 earning a postseason berth. “It's a total team effort,” said coach Mike Elder. “I thought we dominated in every facet of the game. You could come out and be sloppy, but we didn’t have a sloppy week of practice. And we talked about how we’re not just trying to win tonight. We’re trying to be the best versions of ourselves. If you keep doing that and you keep having great practices, you come out and put together a performance like this. Hopefully, we’re going to be even better before this thing’s over.” Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the game is that Avon had seven possessions in the first half and scored on all of them with six touchdowns and a field goal. Even more impressive is the fact that those seven possessions only took a total of 8 minutes, 30 seconds off the game clock. Avon’s seven first-half possessions were as follows with respect to time of possession: 2:16, 0:17, 1:27, 0:26, 1:33, 1:15, 1:16. Wow! “I was proud of our guys,” said Elder. “They played to our standard. I thought we did things well, and, like I said to them, we’re going to have to learn and grow from this game, just like you do after a loss or a close win. There’s always lessons to be had, and we’ll find them in this game, too. But I’m proud of our team. I thought they came out ready to play.” Midview won the pregame coin toss and chose to take the ball, which fired up the Avon defense right off the bat. The Middies netted negative 5 yards in three plays and had to punt—the first of their eight punts (Avon punted once). Six plays later, Michael Colburn bulled his way into the end zone from 4 yards, and the score was 7-0. Avon quarterback Blake Elder, who competed 7 of 9 passes for 119 yards and two touchdowns, found Grant Barr on a beautiful 16-yard TD pass that he slotted right over Barr’s outside shoulder, rendering the pass indefensible. Avon’s next possession saw Trevor Maly under center, and the senior responded with a 4-yard TD pass to Caden Clapham to make the score 21-0. The Eagles added a 37-yard field goal by Petro just 10 seconds into the second quarter to make it 24-0. “We play a large number of guys, and we do it with intention,” said Mike Elder. “Like Trevor Maly, our backup quarterback, came in in the third series. He got two series in the first half. On defense, it’s the same thing as on offense. We’re developing depth. We’re trying to get as many guys Friday night experience as possible. So, when you have those injuries later in the year, it’s not the first time those kids walked on the field. They’ve played meaningful minutes in meaningful games.” Adrian Ramirez and Dean Andress added touchdown runs in the second period, sandwiched around a spectacular leaping touchdown catch by Jakob Weatherspoon on a 28-yard pass from Elder. The final touchdown of the game was scored by senior Isaac Gutierez on Avon’s first possession of the second half. “I love having everybody score,” said Barr. “It’s just a good feeling for everybody. I love my guy, Isaac Gutierez getting in there. And I love having Spoon on offense. It gets a defense spread out a little bit because they’ve got a bunch of guys to worry about. It’s great for Blake. He’s got plenty of options.” It was clear from the start of the game that there was a huge disparity in depth between the two teams. While Midview listed 45 players on its roster, Avon listed more than double that number. “Their team and their coach, they battle,” said Mike Elder. “They’re beat up right now. It’s a numbers thing, right? We have a lot more depth than they do and we knew it. He’s got great players who could play for us. There’s no question. They just don’t have enough of them right now. They just don’t have as much depth as we do and that’s why the game ended up the way it did. We just wore them down.” Elder was very complimentary of the Midview program of coach Jack Armstrong and the decision that the school made a few years ago when it chose to stay in the SWC, a decision that left the Middies as the smallest school in the conference. “These are hard games to play in, because I have so much respect for Midview,” said Elder. “A lot of people have exited our league, and they want to pretend to be good, and maybe we beat the doors off of those people, right? But Midview stayed in the league and they’re trying to get better and fight against good competition, instead of taking the easy way out like some other schools did, and those schools are no better. Midview has a young coach there who’s going to make sure they’re better, and I believe it.” Next on the schedule for Avon is a trip to Amherst October 10.