High school football: Avon Lake wastes no time in showing North Royalton it means business

AVON LAKE — Senior quarterback Michael Corbo admits he got excited when the call came in on Avon Lake's first play of the game Friday night. "I knew we were going to take a shot, but I didn't know which play we were going to call," he said. "So when I heard that play I knew he was going to be open and I knew we were going to connect." Corbo dropped back, then threw the ball every inch of 46 yards as Jared Krukowski made a diving catch over the goal line to give the Shoremen the first of seven touchdowns during a 54-7 rout of North Royalton in the Division II, Region 6 quarterfinals. "I was very confident in Jared," Corbo said. "He's a great receiver. I know any time I put the ball up for him he's going to come down with it. I'm very certain that's going to happen." Avon Lake coach Matt Kostelnik gave the credit to quarterbacks coach Tyler Beckman for the play call. "It really had to do with where we were at on field position and what we were getting," Kostelnik said. "We came out and (Beckman) was like, 'I think it's a shot time,' and I was like, 'Are you sure? First play of the game?' He was like, 'Yeah, let's get after it,' and Michael delivered. Beautiful pass where we want it — we want it outside the hash — and he put it right on there." On the next drive it was more of the same as Corbo hit Nathan Cikalo down the middle of the field for a 20-yard touchdown and the Shoremen led 14-0 less than six minutes into the game. "The second one was actually … well I like to call him my assistant head coach (Vince Marsala), he's kind of like my game manager, and he was like, 'Hey, I think we've got this matchup,' and Mike delivered again," Kostelnik said. "So it was a great call by both of those guys. Whenever you can get the matchups you want and you put your team in a chance to be successful and your quarterback delivers the ball, which he did, things are great." Avon Lake (7-1) was unable to score for the next 45 minutes as the teams were pulled off the field due to lightning strikes, but the Shoremen picked up right where they left off when they returned. Gage Duesler scored a pair of touchdowns — the first on a burst up the middle and a nice cutback for 50 yards down the left sideline — and Owen Wiley connected on a pair of field goals to give Avon Lake a 34-0 halftime lead. While the offense was running — and passing — wild, Avon Lake's defense was giving its counterpart fantastic field position and plenty of opportunities by shutting down North Royalton possession after possession. The Bears were held to three-and-outs on their first three possessions. They didn't pick up a first down until they were already trailing 21-0. Avon Lake kept running back Zadan Abuhamdeh from having a big night and consistently put pressure on quarterback Michael Piazza, coming up with six sacks and several more hits and hurries. "It starts up front — those guys with their speed and their ability to get into the backfield," Kostelnik said. "That tailback's a heck of a tailback and our goal was to hit him in the backfield and stop him from getting rolling, and we were able to do that up front and our linebackers and safeties and corners were able to clean up after that. Overall they just play a great team effort on defense. "Coach was dialing them up and our guys were winning up front. That's really the big key, winning up front consistently." After going winless in six regular-season games, it appeared North Royalton was trying to make a postseason statement at the Southwestern Conference's expense. The No. 22-seeded Bears pulled off stunning upsets of No. 11 Amherst and No. 6 Olmsted Falls before facing the third-seeded Shoremen. "After they beat Amherst and Olmsted Falls we heard a lot of talk about how they can beat anybody in the SWC," Corbo said. "But we're not those other teams and we know that we're for real this year." Avon Lake will get a chance to prove it next Friday when it travels to Toledo Central Catholic to face the No. 2 Fighting Irish — a rematch of the 2018 regional semifinal the Shoremen lost 56-16. "There were a couple head-coaching moments in that game that I would like to forget or take back," Kostelnik said of the previous meeting. "Going into half we should have been down 17-10 and we ended up down 28-10, and I take responsibility for that. "We have to have a great week of practice, we have to compete and we have to match their competitiveness and attitude. We have to play Shoremen football, physical football, and we'll put ourselves in a position to be successful." Contact Shaun Bennett at 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on Twitter. Avon Lake 54, North Royalton 7North Royalton&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;7&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;—&emsp;&emsp;7Avon Lake&emsp;&emsp;21&emsp;&emsp;13&emsp;&emsp;6&emsp;&emsp;14&emsp;&emsp;—&emsp;&emsp;54ScoringAL — Jared Krukowski, 46 pass from Michael Corbo (Owen Wiley kick)AL — Nathan Cikalo, 20 pass from Corbo (Wiley kick)AL — Gage Duesler, 50 run (Wiley kick)AL — Wiley, 27 field goalAL — Duesler, 4 run (Wiley kick)AL — Wiley, 22 field goalAL — Mason Wheeler, 36 run (kick failed)NR — Brandon LoBianco, 20 pass from Michael Piazza (Max Bunsey kick)AL — Jason Krukowski, 43 run (Julia Hurd kick)AL — Jeremy Dzik, 33 run (Hurd kick)Team statistics&emsp;&emsp;NR&emsp;&emsp;ALFirst downs&emsp;&emsp;6&emsp;&emsp;17— by rushing&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;9— by passing&emsp;&emsp;5&emsp;&emsp;8— by penalty&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0Yards rushing&emsp;&emsp;28&emsp;&emsp;272Yards passing&emsp;&emsp;95&emsp;&emsp;191Total offense&emsp;&emsp;123&emsp;&emsp;463Passes att./comp.&emsp;&emsp;20/6&emsp;&emsp;23/15Intercepted by&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0Fumbles/lost&emsp;&emsp;0/0&emsp;&emsp;0/0Penalties/yards&emsp;&emsp;4/35&emsp;&emsp;4/30Individual statisticsRUSHING — (NR) Zadan Abuhamdeh 15-45, Anthony Greco 4-17, Chase Dormody 1-2, Kyle Sandborn 1-(-2), Pierce Canavan 1-(-4), Michael Piazza 8-(-30). (AL) Gage Duesler 7-95, Mason Wheeler 8-79, Jason Krukowski 4-51, Jeremy Dzik 2-37, Jake DePaul 1-4, Ryan Kemer 1-3, Michael Corbo 2-3.PASSING — (NR) Piazza 6-20-95-1-0. (AL) Corbo 14-21-181-2-1, Dzik 1-2-10-0-0.RECEIVING — (NR) Killian O'Callahan 3-37, Vincent Koprowski 2-38, Brandon LoBianco 1-20. (AL) Nathan Cikalo 4-51, Duesler 3-2, Jared Krukowski 2-69, Sam Mikolich 2-13, Aidan Grabowski 1-25, Mitchell Fedders 1-12, Matthew Stuewe 1-10, Ryan Kemer 1-9.