H.S. Football: Avon loses to Glenville after late interception

AVON — It was a tale of two interceptions. Avon's Joe Weatherspoon picked off a pass on the first play of the game to give the Eagles a quick start. Glenville's Jermaine Agee had an even more meaningful defensive gem, as his interception just yards from the end zone sealed the Tarblooders' 27-21 non-conference victory Friday night. "A lot of times when people are looking for answers you sometimes just have to tip your hat to your opponent," Avon coach Mike Elder said. "Glenville has a heckuva football team … credit to Coach (Ted) Ginn and his team, they deserved to win tonight." Avon (2-1) took a quick lead after Weatherspoon came down with the ball after a long pass down the sideline by Glenville's Deonte Rucker, marching 67 yards on 10 plays before junior running back Jakorion Caffey sprinted around the left side for a 5-yard touchdown. Glenville (3-0) used its explosive offensive attack to answer on the next three drives — Rucker finding Damarion Witten over the middle for a 15-yard touchdown, and D'Shawntae Jones getting into the end zone on runs of 33 and 5 yards. Jones and backfield mate J'Vaughn Goodson took turns ripping off huge runs against the Eagles, as each finished with 111 yards on 11 carries. "Some of the guys on that team are going to play on Sundays," Elder said. "Make no mistake about it, they've got some players and they performed tonight. We had trouble stopping them in the first half, then our defensive staff did a tremendous job making adjustments in the second half." Quarterback Sam DeTillio helped Avon keep pace, rushing for a touchdown in the second quarter, then throwing a perfect 44-yard touchdown pass to Cam Santee on the opening drive of the second half to tie the score at 21. The defenses traded stops until Glenville finally broke through with five minutes left in the game, with Vaughn running six times on a seven-play drive, including a 3-yard blast to the left side that gave the Tarblooders the go-ahead score. Avon put together a solid final drive, marching from their 13-yard line to the Glenville 25 before Agee made the big play to end it. "In the second half, we had trouble putting the ball in the end zone," Elder said. "We had opportunities in the red zone … but we'll go back to the drawing board." While Avon's offense couldn't finish in the second half, the Eagles' ground game never got going. The Tarblooders limited Caffey to 33 yards on 13 carries a week after he exploded for 282 yards and two touchdowns against Medina. "I thought they made some nice adjustments to some of our unbalanced formations," Elder said. "They have great athletes on that side of the ball, they had a linebacker who ran around and made tackles on some plays that a week ago went for 40 yards. That's what happens when you have great football players out on the field." It's been an up-and-down non-conference schedule for Avon, which opened with an abbreviated win in Florida before pulling out a 43-42 thriller against the Bees in Week 2. The emotions should be in high gear again next week as it faces top rival Avon Lake. "There's no time to dwell on (Friday's loss)," Elder said. "Our goal is two win the (Southwestern Conference) championship, qualify for the playoffs and win our last game. So none of that has been taken away from us. We just have to use this as a positive to grow and get better." Contact Shaun Bennett at (440) 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on Twitter.