The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Rookie locked in for preseason opener
Titans return just two varsity starters; Eagles get reps with new quarterback
A pair of teams on the opposite side of the high school football spectrum met for a final tuneup at Joe Firment Stadium in Avon on Aug. 12.
Southwestern Conference favorite Avon hosted Lorain in a an evening scrimmage Aug. 12. It served as a measuring stick game for the Titans.
“I think it would do our kids a disservice to our kids to not play these teams,” Lorain head coach Damion Creel said. “It would be a disservice to give them false belief thinking that we’re better than we are.”
Creel’s team didn’t play in 2020 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. They return two players with varsity experience and one with any starting experience.
The Thursday evening scrimmage was the second of the offseason for Lorain.
Both came against very good opponents in Avon, Benedictine and Glenville, all part of a plan by Creel to get his young and inexperienced team ready for the rigors of a Division I schedule.
The Titans’ inexperience showed against the Eagles, who have made the D-II final four, four years in a row.
“We’ve got to fight,” Creel said. “Everything is not going to go right, in life and in football.”
“When things are down and they aren’t going right, how are you going to respond? Right now we’re inconsistent in our response.”
They quickly fell behind in the first quarter of the live first half, and struggled to move the ball against a fast and stout Avon defense. But that’s what you’d expect from a team nearly two years removed from last playing an actual game.
Creel and company now have a week to get ready for their opening game against another tough Division II SWC opponent, Olmsted Falls.
On the other sideline Avon got what it wanted from the scrimmage. The Eagles play an incredibly tough opening stretch to the season with Brunswick, Medina, Glenville and Avon Lake taking up the first four spots on their schedule.
“They say that from week one to week two is where you make the most improvements, but we need to make those improvements heading into week one,” Avon head coach Mike Elder said. “We’re well aware that Brunswick is a really good and talented football team.”
Avon played its ones against the Lorain ones for a full quarter, led by newly named starter Sam DeTillio.
DeTillio is a junior and beat out a pair of other potential starters in a hotly contested QB battle. Elder said the decision ultimately came down to DeTillio’s accuracy, but he’s confident in any of the three should their numbers be called.
“We feel good about all three of our quarterbacks and that’s why it was such a battle,” he said. “They’re all very talented guys and we feel like we can win with any of them. If something were to happen to him we feel confident in the other guys, this wasn’t an easy decision. But we’re fully behind Sam and we feel like he gives us the best chance to win at the highest level.”