High school soccer: Avon, Elyria boys battle to scoreless tie

AVON — Despite numerous attempts, Elyria's defense didn't break against Avon. The Eagles outshot Elyria 23-3, but the Pioneers kept Avon off the board in a scoreless tie in Southwestern Conference action Wednesday night. "Avon is an awesome, awesome team," Elyria coach Brett Heighberger said. "We have nothing but respect for (coach) Chris (Dore) and his program. They're always one of the top teams in the area. We've been focusing on trying to stay connected as a back line and win the ball in the air. It hasn't been that way all season, but tonight we definitely were able to take advantage of getting to that ball first." Avon (2-2-3, 0-1-1) did everything it could to make life easy on its defense, which faced just three shots with goalkeeper Seth Warrick needing to make one save. Elyria's lone shot on goal came in the 18th minute when Gavin Heighberger crossed to Isaac Quast on the top of the box. Aside from that, it was all Avon, but it couldn't put one past Elyria goalkeeper Odin Hirsch, who saved all nine shots on goal. The Eagles did not record a shot on goal until the 26th minute when Garret Espey hammered a 55-yard free kick that Hirsch caught on the fly. Avon recorded 10 shots in the first half, but only placed two on goal. "They outworked us," Dore said. "We got outworked the last game against Avon Lake and tonight against Elyria. Regardless of whether you get the result you want, there's a lot of learning that the guys on the field need to do." Avon continued to put pressure on Elyria (3-3-1, 0-1-1) in the second half, but this time placed seven shots on goal and forced Hirsch to make some fantastic saves. Sean Wilson recorded four shots, placing two on goal, including a great look from the top of the box that Hirsch dove to deflect out of bounds in the 55th minute. "They were playing well defensively," Wilson said. "They held a lot of guys back. It felt like they had all 11 behind the ball. We tried to break them down, but we couldn't. Their goalie made some great saves, a couple that dribbled along the line, but didn't go in. I want to say we were unlucky, but we didn't give ourselves opportunities to finish tonight. It's a bitter taste we've just got to use as motivation and a wake-up call for future games." Wilson's shot was the beginning of a four-minute flurry for the Eagles where they strung together five shots and three corner kicks. Hirsch saved the first corner, a later one resulted in a header over the goal and the Elyria defense didn't allow a shot on the third. Landon Weaver recovered the deflection for a shot that Hirsch saved and two minutes later Wilson and John Foye teamed up on a give-and-go that set Wilson up with a header that sailed over the goal. Avon's two best attempts came in the final 10 minutes. Colten Fitch had a point blank shot blocked by Hirsch and Gabe Kitchen had back-to-back shots with Hirsch deflecting the first then recovering in time to snuff out the second before it could cross the line. "It's all about being quick," Hirsch said. "We know that a second shot is going to come back, so as a keeper you have to get back to center and dive again." Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on Twitter. Avon 0, Elyria 0 SHOTS: Elyria 3, Avon 23 SHOTS ON GOAL: Elyria 1, Avon 9 SAVES: (E) Odin Hirsch 9; (A) Seth Warrick 1 FOULS: Elyria 11, Avon 10 CORNER KICKS: Elyria 2, Avon 7 FREE KICKS: Elyria 10, Avon 11 GOAL KICKS: Elyria 17, Avon 3 HALFTIME: Tied, 0-0