Young Eagles get dominated by Pennsylvania power Pine-Richland

The Avon football team has been here before—just a year ago, to be exact—but this time it’s a little different.

Friday night the Eagles got manhandled by Pennsylvania power Pine-Richland by the score of 48-18, which sent the statisticians scurrying. Here’s what they found:

· It was Avon’s first loss by double figures since 2021, when Medina quarterback and eventual Ohio Mr. Football winner Drew Allar passed for 350 yards and four touchdowns in a 34-17 victory.

· It was the first time the Eagles had been forced into a running clock since a 42-7 loss to Akron Hoban in a 2018 Division II state semifinal.

The loss ended a 14-game winning streak for 1-1 Avon, with the last loss occurring exactly a year ago in a 25-22 decision at the hands of Spruce Creek (FL). That’s how this situation is different. Last year the Eagles missed a long field goal attempt as time ran out that would have forced overtime. This year, they played the final 13 minutes, 44 seconds with a running clock after falling behind by 30 points.

“You have to win with class and you have to lose with class,” said coach Mike Elder. “We’ve won a lot of games by running clocks. We’ve also been on the other end of it. So, now you’ve got to be humble, and you have to realize that you’re on the other end of it.”

Last year, Avon played eventual Division IV state champion Glenville a week after the loss to Spruce Creek, and the Eagles turned things around with a 28-16 victory, sending them on a win streak that would eventually end with their second consecutive Division II state title. This year they will travel to Columbus to face 2-0 Upper Arlington, which has won its first two games by a combined score of 64-7.

“I explained to them that last year we lost in Florida,” Elder said. “We were 1-1 and we were looking at a good Glenville team and now we’re looking at a great Upper Arlington team in Columbus. So, in a sick crazy way, I’m excited about us moving forward and what we need to do to get better.”

The main issue Avon faced against 1-0 Pine-Richland was the explosive offense of the Rams, who are expected to contend for the 5A state championship. Quarterback Aaron Strader, a Kent State commit, exploded out of the backfield for a snazzy 81-yard touchdown run with 4:24 left in the first quarter, giving his team a 13-3 lead. Strader finished the game with 127 yards and two touchdowns on the ground and 92 yards passing.

Wide receiver Khalil Taylor, who is headed to Nebraska next year, opened the scoring with a 50-yard TD run on a jet sweep. The Eagles were not caught off-guard by the explosive plays, they were just unable to defend them.

“Coming in here, we knew the dynamic nature of what they had,” Elder said. “We thought we had to weather the storm early. The explosiveness of (Taylor and Strader) was evident on every film we saw, and we knew it was going to be difficult.”

What made things even more difficult for the Eagles is that they turned the ball over five times on four interceptions and a fumble, and two of the giveaways were turned into touchdowns. Niko Aiello, who had three interceptions on the night, returned one 24 yards for a touchdown just 6 seconds after Strader had given his team a 13-3 lead. In addition, Dylan Michael scored from 26 yards out after Avon quarterback Trevor Sykora lost his grip on the ball while setting up to pass.

“I told our kids, in life, things are never as good as they seem, and things are never as bad as they seem,” Elder said. “Obviously, this snowballed on us. We threw the pick-six. We had the ball slip out of our hands. They scored defensive touchdowns in addition to being a really explosive offense.”

To its credit, Avon played hard to the final whistle, and there were several positives. After falling behind, 27-3, the Eagles put together a long drive late in the first half. With Sykora completing 7 of 10 passes for 56 yards, Avon finally reached the end zone on a 21-yard pass from Sykora to Fin Jerdonek on fourth and 10 with just 9 seconds on the clock.

The Eagles received the kickoff to open the second half, and, trying to seize some momentum, attempted a double pass on its first play of the half, with Sykora throwing a lateral pass to Jerdonek, who then threw the ball toward Gavin Koehler, who had gotten behind the defense. However, Jerdonek was heavily rushed and underthrew the ball, which was intercepted by Aiello.

“Honestly, for a while there, we had momentum,” Elder said. “Then we just shot ourselves in the foot. The double pass was there. I mean, it was wide open. But clearly, we didn’t block it appropriately. Fin had to throw that, and he left it just a little bit short. If he gets two more yards under that, we’re celebrating a touchdown instead of what happened.”

Later, Michael Colburn scored for Avon on a 13-yard run, and the other points for the Eagles came on a 36-yard field by Jude Thiebert in the first period and a two-point conversion pass from Sykora to Jerdonek after Colburn’s TD.

But it just wasn’t enough against the explosive Rams.

“We don’t run from good competition,” Elder said. “These are glorified exhibition games, and I don’t say that because we lost. I said it when we won last week. We knew that we could be 0-3 this year with the teams we’re playing, but our goal is to win the SWC championship, to try to make it to a regional championship and win it and get to a state championship. Every goal is still in front of us.

“Really, what matters is how we wake up tomorrow and what we decide to do with this. We played this team because no one around here wanted to play us. We were back-to-back defending state champions, but nobody knows that all those kids graduated. They’re gone. This is a new group of kids, and we’re inexperienced and young. But I promise the Avon Eagles will get better every week. And by the end of the season, we’re going to enjoy a lot more victories than defeats.”