The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Eagles, Bulldogs to face off in rematch
Southwestern Conference powers prepare for rematch in the playoffs
It’s the heavyweight rematch Northeast Ohio has been waiting for.
Two and a half months removed from their first meeting, Avon and Olmsted Falls will meet again on Nov. 17 at North Ridgeville High School with a regional championship and state semifinal berth on the line.
Meeting in what seems like a lifetime ago in Week 2, the Bulldogs and Eagles have evolved into two very different teams than the ones on display 78 days ago, when the Eagles won on the road, 31-7.
Avon had a 10-0 regular season
with a Southwestern Conference crown and got a No. 1 seed in the playoffs and Olmsted Falls posted a one-loss regular season and obtained a third seed in the playoffs that has yielded an already exciting playoff run.
Now, it’s time to push the
past to the side and get excited as these two teams are primed and ready for a big SWC showdown.
As they have done for almost every practice during this playoff run, the Eagles have had 27-26 lit up on the scoreboard at Joe Firment Stadium as a reminder of how last season ended with a loss to Avon Lake, a team the Eagles beat in the regular season.
“It’s going to be a big challenge,” Avon coach Mike Elder said. “Honestly, that first game doesn’t mean a thing. We understand that based upon the scoreboard and the 27-26 still being up there, it’s just a reminder that’s it’s hard to beat a team twice.”
But Elder and the Eagles won’t have to dig deep for motivation this week.
Knowing that the tripleoption offense of the Bulldogs is a tough scheme to defend, Elder said his team has some knowledge on the read offense and how to contain it.
“Seeing them earlier and more important the triple option for the last several years — we only see it once a year, but twice this year — and it’s a tough offense to prepare for if you don’t see it all the time,” Elder said. “There’s nobody else who does what they do, so that’s unique and gives you a challenge.
“We’ve had some success against it in the past. We know they’ll be better at it and the worse the weather gets, the more effective and efficient this capable offense is.”
Combating the tripleoption offense is even something the Eagles offense has to prepare for. With the Bulldogs keeping the ball on the ground for long drives that typically eat up the clock, quarterback Ryan Maloy knows Avon will have to finish off drives every chance they get.
“You have to take care of the ball when you have the ball, because they chew a lot of the clock up. So you want to be able to capitalize when you have the opportunity,” Maloy said. “I think if we take care of the ball, we’ll be good to go.”
Maloy puts a lot of faith in his defense to keep the potent Olmsted Falls offense off the field, while Bulldogs’ running back Luke Lombardo knows the key to beating the stacked Eagles is to churn out long drives and not squander chances.
“It just builds and we win and we win. We can rely on our offense to score in tight situations like last week, those just build our confidence up,” Lombardo said. “We just pound the ball up the middle, we get the yards we need and kind of take our time. And, for us, that’s a good thing because the longer we have the ball, the less they has a chance to score.”
When Maloy and the Eagles do get the ball, it will be the job of the Olmsted Falls defense to hold one of the most balanced attacks in the state out of the end zone.
Knowing that playoff football is a matter of a half step here or an inch there, Bulldogs linebacker Jaden Mendeluk said the difference in this game could be microscopic.
“We’re just going to be right there, trying to force every fumble, interception, anything we can try and force,” Mendeluk said. “We know they’re a really good team. We’ve had a really good week getting prepared and we talked about believing this week and our motto this week is ‘We’ve all got to believe’ and hopefully everything will work out in the end.”
Olmsted Falls coach Tom DeLuca knows that his players are much more mature than they were in Week 2.
Draining out all of the distractions — from weather to hype and seedings — DeLuca said his team has found its identity at the right time with everything on the line.
“It does seem like a long time ago, I mean you play early in the season and so many things have changed from then until now,” DeLuca said. “Teams evolve so much because different things happen throughout the season. You find out who you are and I feel we’ve improved a great deal on both sides of the football, I know Avon has too. We respect them a great deal.”
Earning this chance after both teams got through a pair of top-notch programs in the players, the keys to this one will be vastly different.
Elder believes his team needs to come out of the gates strong and set the tone early after a couple of slow starts to the first two postseason matchups.
“We want to maximize our opportunities and try to start fast. One thing we haven’t done in our first two playoff wins is have a good first quarter yet,” Elder said. “We need to have a good first quarter and try to get a lead. They don’t like playing from behind, but if they get up and they have the lead, you better know you’re in for a four-quarter game. It doesn’t mean you can’t wait, just means you’re in for an uphill battle.”
On the other side of the field, DeLuca said his Olmsted Falls squad needs to finish off long drives and not settle for field goals against a quick-strike offense.
“That has been a big key for us this week. I mean if you look at the game last week, we had three drives that stalled out inside the 10 and that was huge,” DeLuca said. “We left three off the board and that’s big in playoff games, huge in these types of games and we want to make sure we capitalize.”