by Highland, OH — The Highland Hornets brought the show to their home field game against Avon Lake over the course of Friday night, with a total score of 54-20 this battle was fought hard and across halves.
Avon Lake kicked off the Friday night game to Highland, where the Hornets quickly showed what Avon was getting into tonight. Opening within the first minute of the game, sophomore Colton Wadle passed the ball 30-yards to senior Ben Radigan, where Radigan took the ball all the way down to the goal post for the games first touchdown.
Senior Jonah Kowza scored the extra point, putting 7 on the board for Highland and showing Avon Lake that the hornets are coming in hot tonight.
Once Avon got possession of the ball, they couldn’t get much breathing room from Highland’s defensive line. On the 4th down, the ball was turned over quickly, Highland started their series off strong with a 10-yard sweep from senior Athony DePompei.
This series was a hard stop from Avon, as while they might be down, Avon’s ready to show Highland they’re not out of the game just yet. But with the pressure from Highland’s relentless defensive line, they were forced to kick the ball to the 45-yard line.
Once the ball was turnover, this sparked the beginning of Highland’s 40-Yard rush from Radigan for another touchdown. This touchdown gave Kowza the opportunity to score another extra point, putting another 7 points on the board for the relentless Highland Hornets.
Radigan’s and Kowza’s plays were really turning up the heat for Avon as the ball was quickly regained by Highland’s defense, snuffing out another chance for Avon to score, this series was quickly followed by the conclusion of the first quarter.
Opening into the second quarter, Highland started possession and another running back said it was their turn to score on the pitch, senior Evan Foust ran his heart out across the field for a 67-yard touchdown securing another 6 points Highland. Kowza followed with another extra point, putting Highland 21-0 against Avon, a grim picture for the away team going into the second.
On the conversion, Avon continued to struggle to get momentum against Highland’s defense and their progress across the pitch was quickly snuffed out once again.
Once Highland got the ball, they were ready to end this first half off with a bang with another massive rush from Foust for another 40-yards. This led to a 22-yard touchdown from Radigan, making it a full 18 points he’s scored so far and Kowza followed it up with another successful kick, putting Highland 28-0 over Avon with 8 minutes left in the first half.
Avon couldn’t keep up the pressure, as quickly after they lost the ball to Highland again, Depompei drove the ball another 20-yards to the 15 against Avon. This teed off senior Jack Weber to score another touchdown for the Hornets as the team showed their backline would be the all stars today. This play was followed by another extra point from Kowza making the score 35-0.
Highland showed this wouldn’t be the end of the scoring trend as on the very next kick off Weber managed to give the Avon defense the slip with a recovery followed by a 40-yard touchdown, supplemented by an extra point by Kowza, making the new score 42-0.
Closing out the first half, Avon could get enough momentum to score one touchdown from junior Dawson Terebiha, showing Highland that lessons learned over the past opening weeks are going to pay off tonight, making the score 42-6 going into the second half.
Going into the second half, Highland kicked off to Avon as the referees announced the clock will not stop due to a 30-point differential between the teams per conference regulations, which means for Avon the clock is ticking.
For Highland, that means they’re working down the clock to squeeze every minute between conversions as the pressure lays on for the team far away from home. This pressure was responded with a 20-yard touchdown from senior Jacob Perry with an extra point from senior Kyle Anderson, showing the Hornets they were down but not out putting the score to 42-13.
Avon was not done after that series however, as after a quick fumble recovery, sophomore Chris Gaulding scored a touchdown for Avon, with the extra point supplemented by Anderson. Avon came to play in the second half, with the new score being 42-20.
Highland realized that the Avon from the first half was no longer on the pitch with them, as stops from their defense were matching the energy Highland brought in the first half. Bringing an end to the very quick third quarter as the war wages on into the fourth.
With the ball at the 25-yard line, Avon Lake needed to keep that momentum from the third quarter to secure victory. But in the last few minutes of the game, Jack Weber came in with another touchdown to bring the score board to 48-20.
Followed up by another touchdown from junior Nate Painer, driving the ball all the way to the end zone off the kick off, taking the score to 54-20 for Highland.
This was the play that officially snuffed out Avon’s chances of finding the momentum they needed to win and brought a close to this Friday night game.
Player(s) of the game:
Ben Radigan-(3 TDs, 92 yards)
Jack Weber-(3 TDs, 2 completions, 20 yards)
