by Avon Lake, Ohio- Rain and severe thunderstorms could be found across Ohio Friday night, but not even thunder and lightning could slow down Avon Lake. Senior quarterback, Michael Corbo, led his team to a hot start against the North Royalton Bears.
After forcing the Bears to punt, Corbo found Jared Krukowski for a 46-yard touchdown pass. The score came on their first offensive play of the game. Minutes later, after forcing the Bears to punt again, Corbo delivered another touchdown pass to Nathan Cikalo. The Shoremen were able to sneak a second score and a 14-0 lead in before the weather forced an hour-long delay.
The Bears used the delay to try to figure out a way to get their offense going, as well as slow down the high powered Shoremen offense. Unfortunately for them the game still followed the same tune when play resumed. Avon Lake came out and scored on a 50-yard run by Gage Duesler and then forced the Bears into another three and out down 21-0.
The Shoremen continued their dominate performance on both sides of the ball the rest of the night. Owen Wiley connected on a field goal, which was followed up by a second 50-yard sprint to the end zone by Gage Duesler. Mason Wheeler, Jason Krukowski, and backup quarterback, Jeremy Dzik, all scored on runs of 30-plus yards in the third and fourth quarter.
North Royalton was able to get on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter, but by that time the Shoremen had their backups playing. Bears quarterback, Michael Piazza was able to connect with Brandon LoBianco for a 20-yard score and the game ended with a 54-7 Shoremen victory. The Bears offense was not able to get going all night, mostly because the Shoremen were able to hold stud running back, Zadan Abuhamdeh to under 50 yards on the night. A week prior he totaled 255 yards in a win against Amherst.
The win allows the Shoremen to meet the number two seed Toledo Central Catholic in the Division II Region 6 regional semifinal. Avon Lake will travel to Toledo October 30th for that matchup and if victorious, will set themselves up for a potential rematch against rival Avon.
