Avon Lake defense plays tough before TCC pulls away

Sixth-seeded Avon Lake went through a lot in the past couple of weeks.

With key starters out on offense, the Shoremen’s defense had to anchor down to compete with third seed Toledo Central Catholic in a Division II, Region 6 quarterfinal.

According to Shoremen coach Matt Kostelnik, the senior class played inspired football in its last game, but ultimately fell to the Fighting Irish, 21-0, after a scoreless three quarters of play.

“Our defensive staff does a great job in prepping our guys and getting them ready for every game. Last night, they came out and they played hard. I was really proud of our seniors and the way they were leading the charge on both sides of the ball,” he said. “Our young kids came out and played a physical game. We went toe-totoe with (Toledo Central Catholic) and tackled really well. We kind of had a three-minute implosion (in the fourth quarter) and they got three quick scores on us.”

Toledo Central Catholic’s Chris Edmonds scored a four-yard touchdown to take a 7-0 lead with just over 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter.

The touchdown was followed up by a blocked punt in the end zone. Edmonds then scored on a 11-yard run with 8:36 remaining.

Senior defensive end Avery Viancourt ripped the ball loose, but not before Edmonds crossed the goal line to trail, 21-0, in the fourth quarter.

Avon Lake’s offense did the best it could, moving the chains to give its defense as much time off the field as possible.

“As banged up as we were, we were moving the ball. (Quarterback) Jeremy Dzik, I thought he did a great job of leading the way,” said Kostelnik.

Dzik was ruled out in the fourth quarter after suffering an injury, which put backup quarterback Alex Affolter to enter the game.

Avon Lake advanced to the goal line with the game scoreless in the second quarter, but was stopped on a stand by the Toledo Central Catholic defense.

“We had four straight runs and (Toledo Central Catholic) stopped us. Points are at a premium in the playoffs at the one-inch line we gave the ball to (Jason) Krukowski; unfortunately, we came just a little bit short,” said Kostelnik.

Avon Lake likes to keep strong fundamentals on defense, like open-field tackling, winning the line of scrimmage and strength in numbers.

They held Toledo Central Catholic to 70 passing yards and 214 on the ground. Kostelnik commended his All-Ohio cornerbacks Pierden Pepe and Keegan Rudduck for their open-field tackling.

“Everyone played their asses off, but the one-onone tackling (Pepe and Rudduck) had in the open field when (Toledo Central Catholic’s wide receivers) broke to the open field were impressive,” said Kostelnik. “In general, my kids are tough and a lot of that goes to my seniors.”

Avon Lake might not have had the results it wanted, whether it was due to health or the depth of quality teams in Region 6. Kostelnik thanked his seniors for leaving it all on the field.

“Across the board, it was a great group. I am going to miss these (seniors). They did a great job for us, I couldn’t be more prouder as a coach to watched them go toe-to-toe with (Toledo Central Catholic) last night.”