High school football: Avon Lake survives miscues, beats Strongsville

AVON LAKE — It wasn't pretty, but Avon Lake will take the win. The Shoremen survived a pair of huge special teams mistakes and got a pair of big pass plays from quarterback Alex Affolter in his first varsity start to pull out a 19-14 season-opening win over Strongsville. "At the end of the day, we have to get the ball to our playmakers, and we made a lot of Week 1 mistakes," Avon Lake coach Matt Kostelnik said. "Hats off to coach (Lou) Cirino and his staff. They had a great game plan. We rely on our offensive line and they did a good job of hemming us up all night long." The Mustangs held the Shoremen to just 44 yards rushing with senior running back Wade Nelson getting only 38 yards on 10 carries. The Mustangs broke through first when quarterback Nolan Beard scrambled out of pressure for a 9-yard score with 6:27 left in the second quarter and a 7-0 lead. After an Avon Lake punt, Strongsville was at midfield when junior Luke Stuewe went high to snag an overthrown ball for an interception with under four minutes left in the half. "They kept running these delayed crossing routes, the quarterback was just throwing off the snap," Stuewe said of how he came up with the first of his two interceptions. "I just high-pointed the ball and came down with it." Seven plays later, the Shoremen had their first score of the year when Affolter was able to flip a pass over a pair of linebackers before being tackled from behind. The 4-yard pass went to senior Carter Burk with 57 seconds left in the half. Avon Lake was set to receive the second-half kick, but simply didn't cover the ball and the Mustangs' Eric Bly pounced on it at the Shoremen 18. The Avon Lake defense rode to the rescue, however, stopping the Mustangs on fourth down. Stuewe's second pick came with 4:17 left in the third and set up a two-play, 41-yard scoring drive. Derek McCrum grabbed a 36-yard pass for the big play and Jake Bova went in from 5 yards out. Avon Lake led 13-7 after the point after attempt was blocked. After a Mustangs punt, Avon Lake failed to move the ball and was forced to punt. But the ball sailed over Ian Walsh's head into the end zone where it was recovered by Searius Addishin, giving Strongsville a stunning 14-13 lead early in the fourth. The play seemed to wake up the Shoremen as Affolter hit Stuewe with a 42-yard pass on their first play of the next drive. Bova scored on a 2-yard plunge five plays later to account for the final score of the game. "First game coming in as a starter, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't the one to lose it," Affolter said. "I just wanted to get the ball to our playmakers. The offensive line was outstanding tonight. Everyone played a major role tonight." Contact James Brady at (440) 329-7135 or jbrady_ct@yahoo.com.