H.S. Football Playoffs: Terrible start sets tone in Avon Lake loss

TOLEDO — Anything that could go wrong for Avon Lake did in the first half of its Division II, Region 6 regional quarterfinal with Toledo Central Catholic. Jeremiah Fuller returned the opening kickoff for the top-seeded Fighting Irish 98 yards for a score as they went up 28-0 at the half and never looked back, advancing with a 35-7 win over the eighth-seeded Shoremen at Gallagher Stadium. The Fighting Irish improved to 9-2 and will be at home next week against Clay. "We were preaching physicality and execution and to give up a kickoff return for a touchdown, our first in a couple years, it's clearly no way you want to start," Avon Lake coach Matt Kostelnik said. "We had a ton of opportunities and our defense played well enough, we just couldn't get the running game going." Avon Lake, which finished 6-6, just couldn't get anything going on offense, amassing 39 total yards in the first two quarters (158 for the game) and committing three turnovers on a pair of Dawson TenBrink interceptions and a fumble. The Shoremen also turned it over on downs at the Fighting Irish 1-yard line. Following the kick return to open the game, the Shoremen went three-and-out, giving the ball back to Central Catholic at its 13. On the second play, Fuller raced 63 yards to the Avon Lake 2. The Shoremen defense held up, but Fuller finally plunged in from the 1 for a 14-0 lead with 8:30 left in the first quarter. Following a Fighting Irish punt, Central Catholic's Troy Yharbrough had the first of two interceptions on consecutive passes from TenBrink. After a Fuller 56-yard touchdown was called back because of a holding penalty, the Fighting Irish got into the end zone nine plays later on a 16-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Lincoln Sellers to Amari Eliano with 53 ticks left on the first-period clock. During Central Catholic's next drive, Fuller went out with a knee injury, and he missed most of the second quarter, which slowed down the Fighting Irish attack. The Shoremen finally had a chance to get on the board when Levi Ventrice recovered a fumble at the Toledo 27. Avon Lake got its only first down of the half, on a Central Catholic penalty, getting to the 3-yard line and facing fourth down. TenBrink threw a swing pass to Drake Rudnicki to the right and he tried fighting through a tackler but wound up stopped at the 1 with six minutes left in the half. Zyeri McCray raced 42 yards on the next play, and two plays later Fuller came back in the game and went 57 yards for his 33rd touchdown of the year. Fuller finished with 133 yards rushing on nine carries and had three total touchdowns. After the Fighting Irish sent the game to a running clock on an Eliano 11-yard touchdown grab, the Shoremen finally got on the board with 2:33 left in the season when TenBrink raced 40 yards. "We've been fighting injuries all year, at one point we were down to our last defensive back," Kostelnik said. "You have to keep fighting and find a way. Any time you can get extra experience (in the playoffs) it's important for our young guys." Contact James Brady at jbrady_ct@yahoo.com. Toledo Central Catholic 35, Avon Lake 7 Avon Lake&emsp;0&emsp;0&emsp;0&emsp;7&emsp;—&emsp;7 Toledo&emsp;21&emsp;7&emsp;7&emsp;0&emsp;—&emsp;35 Scoring T — Jeremiah Fuller, 98 kickoff return (Mason Huntbrinker kick) T — Fuller, 1 run (Huntbrinker kick) T — Amari Eliano, 16 pass from Lincoln Sellers (Huntbrinker kick) T — Fuller, 57 run (Huntbinker kick) T — Eliano, 11 pass from Sellers (Huntbrinker kick) AL — Dawson TenBrink, 40 run (Kyle Andreson kick)