by It was senior night in in Avon Lake tonight as The Shoremen hosted the Olmsted Falls Bulldogs. It was a classic matchup of the Bulldogs excellent running game against the Shoremens steel curtain defense.
Avon Lake had only allowed points in three games all season, and knew they would have their work cut out for them tonight if that was to continue.
The story of the game would be the backfield of Avon Lake however, as young Gage Duesler overcame two costly first half fumbles, to rebound and have a gigantic game helping to lead the Shoremen to a 31-7 victory. Duesler finished with 169 yards and 3 touchdowns on 18 hard fought carries.
Once again however, as it has been all season long, it wasn’t great stats that won this game for the Shoremen, but rather it was hard work, unselfish play and discipline that won them this game. It was blocking, blocking, and more blocking that won them this game!
People will focus on the 169 yards that Duesler ran for, but it was his stout offensive line and fullback Griffin Lidyard that allowed Duesler to run wild!
Also, and this can’t be ignored, Duesler made several excellent blocks tonight in max protection that gave Michael Corbo plenty of time to throw. It is the little things that don’t show up in the box score that win State Championships.
That is why this Shoremen team is so good, they do the small things well and it leads to win after win. They play team ball, they don’t worry about stats and headlines, they worry about wins and that is why they succeed!
Need further proof of that mentality? Corbo went 10 of 12, and completed passes to 6 different receivers. How often do you see a team use six different guys to catch the ball? Corbo plays no favorites and the Shoremen are truly 5 deep at every position because of it. Corbo went 10 of 12 for 168 yards and a touchdown.
Catching those 10 passes were Creed Bolognia, who had a touchdown for the second straight week. Matt Oehlstom who had 3 big catches for 34 yards in crucial situations. Nathan Sidloski had 3 catches himself for 43 yards. Also catching balls were Nathan Cikalo. Mithell Fedders and Jared Krukowski.
The early part of the game was all Olmsted Falls as they moved the ball with ease, jumping out to a 7-0 lead on a Charlie Ciolek touchdown pass to Domincyk Newson. Alec Wall who had several big plays on that drive, had an impressive first half and finished the night with 65 yards on 11 carries.
It looked as though they would stretch it out to a 14-0 lead late in the first quarter before a rare fumble snuffed out a Bulldogs drive deep in Shoremen territory.
After their first drive led to a Gage Duesler fumble, and the second was turned over on downs, the Shoremen offense finally got cooking with a long methodical drive that was capped off with a Corbo to Bolognia 28 yard touchdown strike to even the score. Bolognia is starting to heat up at the right time as he now has touchdowns in consecutive games.
The half would end by the same score after both teams saw promising drives snuffed out with turnovers. For Avon Lake, with just a minute to go it looked as though they would go into score when Duesler committed his second fumble of the game. However, Stevie Wonder could have easily seen that it was not a fumble.
Not only was his knee down, but the ball was in his hands when it hit the ground. As any football fan with a basic knowledge of the game would tell you, the ground cannot cause a fumble. Sadly, for Duesler, the referee saw it differently and the score remained tied going into halftime.
The second half was all Avon Lake as their defense took things over. They did not allow a single Bulldogs first down in the third quarter as they completely shut down the Bulldog rushing attack.
The Shoremen took the lead on the opening drive and never looked back. Duesler capped off the opening drive with a 2-yard rumble to get it going. Moments later it was the cannon leg of Harry Hebert to extend the lead to 17-7 with a 43 yard field goal splitting the uprights.
Two more touchdown runs by Gage Duesler in the fourth quarter put it away for good. Olmsted Falls is loaded with talented underclassmen and will remain one of the top teams in this conference for a long time to come. However tonight, I’m pretty sure that few if any offenses in Division Two could have scored on the Shoremen defense once they got locked in.
It was a solid night for the entire defense with several standout plays from Kai Kuwalu and Tanner Russell just to name a few. Also, the big man Jack McCrum dominated in the trenches.
The playoffs begin next weekend and we will see you there!
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Love your site! Glad the O line got some love.