H.S. Football: Avon shows off depth in rout of North Ridgeville

NORTH RIDGEVILLE — Take one receiver away and Avon just goes to another. North Ridgeville focused its attention on Grant Barr in the first half, and that just opened up opportunities for Sammy Ulery to shine as quarterback Blake Elder found the senior for two first-half touchdowns as the Eagles rolled to a 55-7 Southwestern Conference win Friday evening. "We watch film, we have great coaches and great players," said Ulery, who finished with 71 yards and two touchdowns on three catches. "We do our job, but it's really our entire coaching staff. They make the concepts that go well against the defense. We just make the plays. "Watching film we saw they double-team the best receiver, so we just took advantage of that and threw up the ball." Avon (3-1, 1-0) had success attacking the North Ridgeville secondary. Three of Elder's first five completions were touchdowns. Ulery caught a 24-yard touchdown on the Eagles' second play of the game, Fin Jerdonek reeled in a 71-yard bomb right after North Ridgeville tied the game at 7 and in the second quarter Elder found Ulery again, this time from 36 yards. "My receivers did most of the work so I have to give all the credit to them and my line," said Elder, who went 10-for-14 for 232 yards and five touchdowns with one interception. "We have very talented receivers so if I just get them the ball they're going to score." North Ridgeville (3-1, 0-1) had its best possession after Avon went up 7-0. The Rangers strung together a nine-play, 51-yard drive that featured a nice fourth-and-18 conversion to set up the score. After a delay of game backed up North Ridgeville 5 yards, quarterback Cole Miller found H-back Cole Allison on a nice seam route over the middle for a 25-yard gain. Three plays later, Miller beautifully threaded two defenders to find Dylan DeShazo on a slant for a 5-yard touchdown, evening the score with 1:17 left in the first. "The score and the stats aren't going to show it, but Cole Miller had a heck of a game tonight," North Ridgeville coach Bryan Morgan said. "That was a bright spot coming out of this game. He put some balls in great spots. "I said going into this game we're going to see what kind of team we are in the region. I saw some great things and I think the success of North Ridgeville is going to be great if we keep sticking together and working hard." The tie was short-lived, as Elder threw his second touchdown just 16 seconds later. Barr was held to one catch for 16 yards in the first half, but broke loose for two touchdowns in the second, both from Elder. The first was from 14 yards and the next from 38 yards to cue the running clock. Avon also forced four turnovers on defense, including a 28-yard interception return by Ben Strichek in the second quarter. "We have some explosive players," Avon coach Mike Elder said. "We proved tonight that when you want to double-team Grant Barr we've got other guys who can run and are capable. We're excited about that. And when people want to take away the pass, we'll run it as much as we have to." Contact Chris Sweeney at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X.