The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Avon can’t get to the top of Mount Hoban
Eagles’ rally comes up short in state semifinal against D-II power
The Avon football team continues to climb Mount Hoban. They haven’t reached the top just yet but they’re certainly getting closer.
In a Division II state semifinal Nov. 13 that most outside of the Avon program expected to be a blowout, the Eagles gave Hoban all it could handle through more than three quarters before the Knights pulled away to a 28-14 victory at Byers Field in Parma.
Hoban will play Massillon next week for the state title.
“They’re the standard,” Avon coach Mike Elder said
of Hoban. “If you want to win one, you’ve got to go through them. But we’ve closed that gap. That was my message to the underclassmen. These seniors have established quite a legacy, and we’ll see if next year’s team wants to live up to that and work as hard as they did.”
In 2017, the Eagles lost to Hoban in a state semifinal, 30-6. The following year the score was 42-7. This time, despite being down, 14-0, at the half, Avon battled back to tie the score at 14.
Later, down 21-14, the Eagles reached midfield on what could have been an equalizing drive but an overthrown pass resulted in a pick-six for Hoban with less than 2 minutes to play.
“We’re not into moral victories,” Elder said. “I couldn’t be more proud of them. These kids believed in their heart that we were going to come in here and win. I believed it as a coach, but it didn’t happen. But we gave ourselves a chance. We fought back from being down 14. But in the end, hat’s off to Akron Hoban. They’re going back to the state championship, where they have lived.”
The story of the game was the defensive effort put forth by Avon in the second half. Hoban pounded its way to 190 yards of offense in the first half but gained only 135 in the second half with just one offensive touchdown.
“It was just executing,” said senior linebacker Kaya Yonkers. “We knew what they were bringing at us and we had a game plan for it. We just executed better in the second half.”
Yonkers, Niko Pappas and several other Avon de
fenders were all over the field, shutting down the vaunted running game that featured Victor Dawson and the passing game of fouryear starting quarterback Shane Hamm.
“( Yonkers is) what high school football is all about,” Elder said. “When you go to Akron Hoban, you talk about who is offering you, where is the next school you’re going to, what Division I school are you interested in. We win with kids like Kaya Yonkers, who just has tremendous heart. He takes all 170 pounds of him and throws it around the field for the love of his teammates.”
While the defense kept the Eagles in the game, the offense came alive in the second half as well. Pappas engineered two scoring drives from the quarterback position, breaking off long runs after being flushed from the pocket and connecting with Tim Conwell on an 8-yard scoring pass.
Pappas scored Avon’s other touchdown after a spectacular sideline catch by Ryan Ptacek on which he was falling out of bounds but managed to keep his feet inbounds.
“That’s just who they are,” Elder said of his team’s comeback. “If you’ve watched us at all this sea
son, you know they just fight and fight and fight. As a coach, you want your kids to be great teammates. You want them to love each other. And then you want them to play with relentless effort regardless of circumstances. That’s what this team does.”
After Hunter’s short TD run tied the score at 14, the Knights roared right down the field to re-take the lead. It took them only eight plays to cover 80 yards while taking just 2:57 off the clock.
Avon had one last chance to tie the score and got as far as its own 45 before things stalled. First Pappas was sacked for a loss of 8 yards. Following two plays that netted zero yards, Pappas attempted to hit Michael Ptacek across the middle but threw the ball too high. Hoban’s Kharion Davis returned it 61 yards the other way to complete the scoring.
“I’m never going to be the guy who’s going to make excuses,” Elder said. “We want to beat the best. When we win a state championship at Avon it’s going to be really special. We’re going to keep chipping away until it happens. If it never does, at least we’ve been chasing excellence and we’re going to hang our heads high because we’ve been doing all we can.”