High school football: Good night for Avon as Eagles crush Elyria

AVON — There are good nights and there are Good nights. For Avon, they usually go hand in hand thanks to senior quarterback Nolan Good. Good was 10-for-14 passing for 221 yards and four touchdowns Friday night in a 58-0 win over Elyria in Southwestern Conference play. Good connected with Matt Maxey for scores of 75 and 16 yards, hit Cole Kepner for a 38-yard TD and found Fin Jerdonek for a 27-yard score as the Eagles, the state's top-ranked team in Division II, improved to 4-0, 1-0 in the SWC. Elyria fell to 0-4, 0-1. "It all starts with trust," Good said. "Trust in my front five and my running back to protect me. It allows me to not worry about the defensive line. When I have to make a move, it's more instinctual. This allows me to focus more on the back half of the defense. Even if the defensive line does break through, I play football, so it's on me to make a play." Avon, which led 28-0 after a quarter and 42-0 at halftime, outgained the Pioneers 359-117 for the game, getting 259 passing and 100 on the ground. "We're always going to take what the defense gives you, so if people are going to load the box up, we're going the throw the ball, and if they cover you up we're going to run the ball," Avon coach Mike Elder said. "It happens both ways. We're always balanced, and we want to be 50-50 pass-rush, but tonight they dictated us throwing a little bit more, but our game plan was to take what they gave us." Avon was just as dominant on defense, constantly applying pressure on Elyria's quarterback and limiting running lanes. Toward the end of the second quarter, Elyria's offense displayed some signs of life as it ventured into the red zone. However, the Eagles' ball-hawking secondary picked off a pass in the end zone to end the threat. "We got a really good defense here at Avon, and I think one of the best in the state," Elder said. "They've played some really good competition the past three weeks, and today was no exception, and they just played at a high level. They're very stingy with yards and points, so they do exactly what we expected them to do tonight." With the big lead, the Eagles kept the ball on the ground for most of the second half. "We've got a lot of great players here and we have players here that play JV for us that could play varsity elsewhere," Elder said. "That depth is very important to us." Contact Jarad Blackford at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.