H.S. Football: Avon's defense dominates in shutout of Amherst

AMHERST — Give Avon's defense all the credit for Friday's 34-0 win over Amherst in Southwestern Conference play. All the Eagles did was hold the Comets to three first downs, 12 yards passing and 48 yards total offense. The game plan was to limit Cy Christensen, one of three Lorain County passers to exceed 7,000 yards in their careers, and they did it to near perfection.Christensen was held to four completions in 13 throws, none more than 6 yards. He was intercepted once. Avon improved to 7-1 overall and 5-0 in the SWC. Amherst fell to 4-4 and 2-3. The Eagles have won all 10 SWC meetings between the schools. Amherst's plan was to milk the clock, shorten the game by running and throwing short passes. It was a sound plan, but it just wasn't executed. "That's the recipe," Avon coach Mike Elder said. "I always say going in, everyone has a pathway to victory. They were doing the right thing. Listen, I want to say this out loud. Amherst's football program is in good hands. They're doing a great job over there. They've got a beautiful facility over there. Their coaching staff ... they're prepared. We can see on film when teams are well-coached. That's a well-coached football team. We just had a little more guns in our arsenal than they did." That arsenal included the defense that was able to disguise its blitzes and rush packages. Amherst just simply couldn't get anything going. "Our game plan coming in was incredible," Avon senior linebacker Ryan Stolarski said. "I think we definitely confused their offense and executed at a high level." "They did a great job of masking a lot of the stuff they do," Amherst coach Tom Thome said. "They get to the ball very quick and they're just sure tacklers. They're just a really sound team." On offense, Avon was methodical.With the exception of one sack and one lost fumble, the Eagles' execution was just about perfect. They even converted a pair of long field goals by Jensen Petro, who hit from 45 and 35 yards. Avon built a 27-0 lead by halftime and drove 75 yards in six plays to set in motion a running clock. Blake Elder, the coach's son, threw for 237 yards and four touchdowns by completing 19 of 26, eight going to Grant Barr for 87 yards and two scores. His longest completion was 54 yards to Jakob Weatherspoon to set up Avon's final touchdown. Elder came into the game leading the area in passing while Christensen was second. "I guess you could say that," Blake Elder said when asked if he came in wanting to outplay Christensen. "I wasn't really thinking about it too much. We have the best defense in the state of Ohio. When we get the ball in four plays and we get all these possessions, we're just bound to score every drive.""(Christensen) is a great kid but our kids were inspired to not have him move to No. 2 (in county career yards) yet," Mike Elder said. "He will. Great player. We know that. The kids were really excited about playing him. He's one of the top quarterbacks in the county and our kids were able to hold him to like 10 yards ... so that's awesome." Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com.