High school football: Reece Polomsky boots game-winner for Avon Lake against North Ridgeville

NORTH RIDGEVILLE — Reece Polomsky had waited for this moment since his freshman year at Avon Lake. With ice in his veins, Polomsky sailed a 42-yard field goal through the uprights as time expired Friday to give the Shoremen a 12-10 win over North Ridgeville in Southwestern Conference play. Avon Lake (6-3, 5-1) remains just a game behind unbeaten Avon in the SWC. North Ridgeville fell to 7-2, 4-2. Avon and Avon Lake will battle it out Friday with the title on the line. "You know what they say," Polomsky answered when asked about North Ridgeville's last timeout designed to rattle him. "You can't ice ice. At the end of the day, I know I can kick a field goal. It's all mental and the goal for me is to be in the best mental place possible." Polomsky was hitting them from nearly 50 yards as he warmed up prior to the game. He was ready. "We practice them daily. We kick them from all over. I work constantly with my dad, my mom and it's really just the support that I get," he said. "It just helps me the most. I take my three steps back, three steps to the left and trust my line and kick it through the pipes." Polomsky was responsible for all of Avon Lake's points, hitting field goals from 22, 36, 36 again and finally the 42-yarder as time ran out. "It took four field goals to win it," said Avon Lake coach Matt Kostelnik. "Great job by our kicker here. He went out there and delivered when we needed him to. "If you'd seen the effort that this guy has put in from the time he was a freshman to where he's at right now, I think you'd be amazed." Kostelnik would be the first to tell anyone his Shoremen dodged a bullet. North Ridgeville had appeared to score on a 36-yard pass from Cole Miller to the speedy and deceptive Charlie Steinmetz with 4:16 to play, but the Rangers were guilty of having a lineman downfield to negate the touchdown. "We had a lineman that was 1 yard past where they were going to allow," North Ridgeville coach Bryan Morgan said. "That varies every game." A pass interference call gave North Ridgeville a first down at the Avon Lake 29, but a holding call and then an interception by Michael Summerfield put the Shoremen back in business, trailing 10-9 with 3:26 to play. "That last turnover was crucial," Kostelnik said. "The play they ran that got a touchdown, luckily they had an illegal man downfield. We caught a break. The break went our way this week." Without making a play longer than 9 yards from there, Avon Lake methodically moved the ball into Polomsky's range in 10 plays, letting the time run down to just two seconds at the 25-yard line on third-and-9. The game was a defensive gem. Neither side would buckle. Avon Lake held North Ridgeville's vaunted running game to 98 yards. The Rangers gave up only 108 on the ground to the Shoremen. North Ridgeville scored the only touchdown, a 3-yard off-tackle run by junior stalwart Zack Barnhart to cap a 39-yard drive after its defense held the Shoremen to a three-and-out at their 13. It took the Rangers eight plays to score. It gave North Ridgeville a 10-3 halftime lead. Austin DeShazo had kicked a 26-yard field goal earlier. "We were just shy last week," said Kostelnik of an overtime loss to Olmsted Falls. "This week I told the kids to stick to the grindstone. I got a good feeling the ball's going to go our way here at some point." Avon Lake was without a pair of key seniors on offense — wide receiver Luke Stuewe and tailback Anthony Benedict. Quarterback Alex Affolter did his best both throwing (126 yards) and running (63) to keep the Shoremen afloat. "He did a good job getting himself out of trouble and keeping the sticks moving," said Kostelnik. "We still need to work a little bit on the passing game to get the ball off on time, but overall he kept us in the game, he kept us moving." Since 2013 when North Ridgeville joined the SWC, Avon Lake has won eight of the 10 meetings. The Rangers snapped a six-game losing streak to the Shoremen last year with a 23-17 win. "Our defense played great all night long," said Morgan. "Held them out of the end zone the entire night. The interception at the end was just a good football play by them. I think when we look at the film, we'll see some things that we don't like, but they definitely handled us between the tackles and that affected us a lot in the second half." Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com.