Avon Lake captures season-opening win

The Avon Lake girls spoiled Rocky River’s home opener on Nov. 27, topping the Pirates, 42-35.

“I liked our aggressiveness tonight,” Avon Lake head coach Dave Zavara said. “We played

hard on defense, but I think at times we got a little too fast on offense. We kind of rushed our shots and passes. But overall with it being our first ballgame I was pleased.”

Both teams had solid starts on offense, with the Shoregals (1-0) taking a 14-10 lead after the first quarter. They went 2-of-5 from the field and 3-of-7 from behind the arc.

“We learned a lot about ourselves,” Rocky River head coach Elaine Hasek said. “We definitely need some improvement on the guards standpoint. But we still have some younger kids and one didn’t play much varsity at all last year, and one we didn’t bring in until late December of last year.”

Defensively, Avon Lake did a good job of holding Rocky River (0-1) the next two quarters.

The Shoregals allowed five points in the second quarter and seven points in the third quarter. The Pirates were held to 12 field goals in the game.

“Avon Lake had great pressure tonight, and that’s something they’re really good at,” Hasek said. “I knew that coming in tonight we were gonna have to be able to handle, and we had moments of greatness tonight and we had moments of weakness. What we need to do is learn from that and tomorrow we plan on watching some film and breaking it down and reflecting on and understanding how to play together and just seeing each other and the whole concept of a jump stop.”

Despite having a lull on offense in the middle quarters, the Pirates were able to cut Avon Lake’s lead to four with 3:25 left in the game, when Hanna Chapman knocked down a corner 3-pointer.

“The fact that they decided to fight there and not just give up was nice,” Hasek said. “We drew up an out-of-bounds play and it didn’t really work, but then we got that 3 and then we got that jump ball, which turned into us getting the ball, and those were three great things in a row. If we could have just executed that out-of-bounds play, who knows what would have happened? Definitely, some situational things that once again that inexperience is what we need to get better at, but I thought overall we did a good job fighting to the end.”

Avon Lake, however, answered after a timeout. Guard Amber Achladis scored on a fast break after a Pirates turnover, which extended the Shoregals’ lead to six.

“I slowed them down a little bit,” Zavara said. “I thought we were playing too fast at times and I reminded them that we’re leading the ball game. But I think a couple of times we took some bad shots and some out of control shots, but again I tried to make sure that I slowed them down on offense and take good percentage shots.”

Offensively, Achladis led Avon Lake in scoring with 11 points while Ariana Negron followed up with nine.

Chapman led Rocky River and all scorers in the game with 14 points, while Ann Beirne and Bridget McCue had six points each for the Pirates.