H.S. Football: Avon Lake loses control of game, falls to Olmsted Falls

OLMSTED FALLS — Minutes into the third quarter of Avon Lake's 25-21 loss to Olmsted Falls on Friday night, the Shoremen looked like they were in control. Running back Ezra Jones had just broken off a 51-yard burst for his second rushing touchdown of the night to give his team a 21-10 advantage. The Shoremen scored touchdowns on three of their four drives to that point and had shut down the Bulldogs after an opening-drive touchdown. Then something clicked for Olmsted Falls. It marched down the field and Owen Singleton bulled his way into the end zone for a touchdown and caught a two-point conversion to quickly cut the deficit to three. "We were able to handle adversity tonight," Singleton said. "We knew it'd be a dogfight as soon as we stepped on the field." The touchdown was Singleton's second of the night, each coming from inside the 5, though he finished with 103 yards on 24 carries. "We worked all offseason to get that strength," Singleton said. "We have five guys up front, working their tails off to get a result like that." The Olmsted Falls defense forced a second straight Avon Lake punt, and with the ball and a chance to tie the game or take the lead, Olmsted Falls dialed up a rare pass. The Bulldogs had just nine pass attempts, compared to 46 rushing attempts, but their ninth and final pass was the biggest play of the game. Junior quarterback Cameron Pesch dropped the ball perfectly into the hands of Adam Smith, who high-stepped away from a diving tackler to complete a 72-yard catch-and-run to put the Bulldogs in front. "(Pesch) is a great quarterback," said Olmsted Falls head coach Tom DeLuca. "He does exactly what we ask him to do, and when it's his chance to throw the ball, he's on point." There was still plenty of time on the clock, however, and the high-powered Avon Lake offense got two more chances to score and take back the lead. On the first, Logan Connelly made a fantastic play on the sideline to bat down Dawson TenBrink's fourth-down pass, and on the second, junior linebacker Mason Cerovac ended the game and gave the Bulldogs their fifth consecutive win over the Shoremen. After a penalty took away a big gain for Avon Lake, Cerovac sacked TenBrink to set up third-and-25. TenBrink threw an incomplete pass on third down, and on fourth down, Cerovac was in the backfield again, forcing a second straight incompletion. "We were just battering all game," Cerovac said. "We knew they were going to throw at the end, and I got home, and got lucky to break through and make a couple plays." While Olmsted Falls' defense did much better in the second half, Avon Lake's offense didn't do itself any favors, frequently getting in its own way to help aid the Olmsted Falls' comeback. "We just didn't put the ball in the end zone," said Avon Lake coach Matt Kostelnik. "We put ourselves in the driver's seat, and then we stalled out. We gave ourselves a chance, but we just didn't get that final push." Friday's win takes Olmsted Falls to 4-3 and 2-2 in the Southwestern Conference, but more importantly, it washes away the bad taste of a 20-16 defeat at the hands of Amherst a week ago. "Our team is really resilient," Cerovac said. "We've come through a lot of adversity after a tough loss last week that we thought we should have won. Coming off that, we could have hung our heads and sulked and let that affect this game. We did in the first half a bit, but in the second half, we decided to pick it up." Avon Lake saw its three-game win streak end, and sitting at 3-4 with SWC leaders Avon still on the schedule, it faces an uphill battle to make the playoffs for the eighth straight year. Box Score Olmsted Falls 25, Avon Lake 21 Avon Lake 7 7 7 0 — 21 Olmsted Falls 7 3 0 15 — 25 Scoring OF - Owen Singleton, 1 run (Tyler Gebbie kick) AL - Ezra Jones, 15 run (Kyle Anderson kick) AL - Christopher Gaulding, 7 pass from Dawson TenBrink (Anderson kick) OF - Gebbie, 21 kick AL - Ezra Jones, 51 run (Anderson kick) OF - Singleton, 4 run (Singleton, pass from Cam Pesch) OF - Adam Smith, 72 pass from Pesch (Gebbie kick) Team statistics AL OF First downs 9 13 — by rushing 2 9 — by passing 7 3 — by penalty 0 1 Yards rushing 70 252 Yards passing 173 115 Total offense 243 367 Passes att./comp. 26/18 9/6 Intercepted by 0 0 Fumbles/lost 1/0 3/1 Penalties/yards 4/41 5/31 Individual statistics RUSHING — (AL) Ezra Jones 13-86, Dawson TenBrink 5-(-18), Mason Ambrose 1-3, Drake Rudnicki 1-(-1). (OF) Owen Singleton 24-103, Logan Connelly 10-73, Khye Gilbert 2-9, Cam Pesch 7-51, Owen Radigan 3-16. PASSING — (AL) Dawson TenBrink 18-26-173-1-0. (OF) Cam Pesch 6-9-115-1-0. RECEIVING — (AL) Michael Summerfield 2-47, Christopher Gaulding 4-30, Colin Hout 3-19, Thomas Rodkey 1-7, Ezra Jones 1-(-1), Aidan Stewart 5-55, James Ness 1-8, Ryan David 1-17. (OF) Khye Gilbert 1-6, Keagan Smith 1-11, Logan Connelly 3-26, Adam Smith 1-72.