CLEVELAND — Avon defeated St. Ignatius 22-21 on Thursday night at Huntington Field in the season opener for both teams.
The Avon Eagles came into their season opener ranked as the number 8th team in the state and back-to-back state titles.
Their quest for a third consecutive state title began on neutral turf at Huntington Field against the St. Ignatius Wildcats, who were ranked 50th in the state coming into this matchup.
High school football came a day early for these two programs and turned the game into a conservative ballgame.
Not many passes traveled over 25 yards or more in this game. Instead, there was cautious, clock-killing football demonstrated by both offenses. Positive yards came one short gain at a time with their rushing attacks generating most of the positive yardage.
The first score of the game wouldn’t occur until around the seven-minute mark of the second quarter. That score came in six points for the Eagles off a 30-yard screen pass from quarterback Trevor Sykora to slot receiver Fin Jerdonek.
Another Avon Eagles’ score came from running back Michael Coburn from about four yards out. That was the second straight scoring possession for the Eagles after forcing an interception off of Wildcats’ quarterback Dane Donovan.
It was linebacker Ryan Eaton sniffing out the screen pass to the running back to jump in front of the pass for the interception, setting up another Avon touchdown.
Down by fourteen, close to intermission, the Wildcats decided to allow their wideout/scatback Billy Cole to move the chains.
On the five times that Cole touched the football on the following drive, it would be the fifth time that he would conclude the drive with a 15-yard run to the left resulting in a touchdown for the Wildcats. That score would cut Avon’s lead from fourteen points to eight points.
In an attempt to cut the point deficit down to five, St. Ignatius had their kick blocked by Avon.
It was third down and ten with eight seconds left before halftime. St. Ignatius had the ball placed around the 25-yard line. Instead of taking a deep shot at the endzone, they decided to send the field goal team out onto the field on third down with eight seconds left before halftime.
They would make up for the missed opportunity in the third quarter with strong defense upfront led by edge rushers David Hughes and James Conrad. As they sealed the edges and pressure quarterback Trevor Sykora as much as they could.
Eventually, their strong defensive performance would lead to a tying score from their sophomore half-back Tyler McMillon. As he ran off tackle to the left from 12 yards out and into the endzone.
The scoreboard would be read, 14-14 in the third quarter. That was after the Wildcats succeeded on the two-point conversion on a decent back shoulder pass from quarterback Jacob Mikin to wideout Trey Haddad.
Their mission to upset the two-time state champions had an even greater probability of completion when St. Ignatius safety Anthony Anghilante picked off a Sykora pass that popped off the hands of an Avon receiver in the slot.
It would be Anghilante’s second interception of the game and it would set up another go-ahead score from their sophomore savior.
Tyler Mcmillon would score his second touchdown from 20 yards out this time to give St. Ignatius their first lead of the game. This sequence of sudden events left close to six minutes for Avon to get back on the winning side of the score before the game’s expiration.
The second to final drive of the game would be in Avon’s complete control. The drive nearly killed off the final six minutes and it would be concluded in a game of inches.
It was a drive that lasted for 14 plays and the 14th play was running back Michael Coburn barely getting one yard over the goalline for the eventual game-tying score.
The Eagles instead wanted to get the two points to win the game with Dykora throwing the game winner to wide receiver Jackson Palmer in the corner of the endzone.
For St. Ignatius, this 22-21 loss is more of a growth spurt for a program fighting for respect. As they showed a lot of watchers last night that they can become a contender.
For Avon, it’s a 22-21 win that shows why this program is what it is, a football powerhouse. A strong-minded team despite having back-to-back state titles is still playing with a chip on their shoulder.
According to Michael Coburn, this is a resilient team that could’ve played a lot better if it wasn’t for dehydration.
As Coburn stated after the game, “our whole defense was cramping up, half of our starters on offense were cramping, we just got to hydrate better and fuel our body better.”
For this team to regain the lead in the final seconds after losing it due to low body fuel shows that this team so young can conquer all obstacles.
