H.S. Football: Avon rebounds, shows grit with win over Glenville

AVON — When a pair of state champions collide, the team that makes the fewest mistakes will usually come out on top. Friday night that team was Avon. The defending Division II state champion Eagles used a big receiving night from senior Grant Barr and a swarming defense to get back in the win column, defeating defending Division IV state champion Glenville 28-16 in a non-league game. Coming off its first regular-season loss in two years last week at Spruce Creek in Florida, Avon was looking for someone to step up and turn around its fortunes and Barr delivered. Barr had five receptions in the first quarter on his way to a 160-yard receiving night on nine catches. "We knew we had to step it up from last week. We didn't do what we wanted to do, we wanted to win and we left disappointed. We knew we had to get back at it this week," Barr said. "We've got a bunch of great coaches who know how to get us in packages that are advantageous to us and we kept going to those plays." The Eagles (2-1) marched down the field 65 yards and 76 yards on their first two possessions to take a 13-6 lead after one quarter. After a 37-yard catch by Barr got Avon in Tarblooders territory, senior quarterback Blake Elder connected with Dylan Luken on a 7-yard scoring play. Later in the opening quarter running back Cam Wendell scored the first of his two touchdowns in the game, this one on a 1-yard run. Wendell also had a 6-yard touchdown in the second half. The game turned into a defensive struggle in the second quarter. Avon forced a pair of Glenville (2-1) turnovers in the first half, but the Eagles could not capitalize as their three second-quarter possessions ended in punts or a turnover on downs. The Tarblooders outgained Avon 307-264 but when they weren't handcuffing themselves with 17 penalties that cost them 155 yards, Avon was making big stops on defense. "What I noticed about this team after last week is there's extreme ownership among players and coaches. When things don't go well they look in the mirror, they look at themselves and that's special when you have a group that does that," Avon coach Mike Elder said. "We had a great week of practice and I am proud of how this group came out tonight." Glenville pulled within a single score when Da'von McDougle scored on a 5-yard touchdown run followed by a 2-point conversion pass from Arvell Nelson to Chase Ivory with 10:43 to play to make the score 20-14. Blake Elder, who was 13-of-25 for 181 yards and two touchdowns, responded by leading an 11-play, 60-yard drive that ended with him throwing a 22-yard touchdown pass to Fin Jerdonek and then throwing a 2-point conversion pass to Barr to make it 28-14. After starting the season with one of the area's toughest non-league schedules, Coach Elder feels his team is ready to begin defense of its Southwestern Conference title next week. The Eagles travel to undefeated North Ridgeville. "Tonight to hold a good team to 16 points was big," Elder said. "We always say these first three games are exhibition games and we mean that. We want to win a conference championship and we want to play really good competition Weeks 1 through 3 to get ready. We're trying to build this thing and we wanna know what we're good at and what we have to work at." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.