As Avon Lake embarks on its 15th playoff appearance in school history against Maumee tonight, they’re riding a huge wave of momentum.
The Shoremen have won six-straight games and their 14th conference title under head coach Dave Dlugosz.
Some Lorain County football fans may not have seen Avon Lake making the playoffs early in the season after a rocky start.
The Shoremen began the season with playoff teams Brunswick and Maple Heights and Division I Elyria. They also opened conference play against perennial power Olmsted Falls.
Some turnover problems and inexperience led to a 1-3 start for Dlugosz’s team before things started clicking.
Junior quarterback Trent Toy didn’t start off that strong. He had two touchdowns and six interceptions through the Avon Lake’s first seven games. Since then, he’s thrown five touchdown passes and just one interception.
“We had to be patient here,” Dlugosz said. “Trent will be one of the first ones to tell you that he did not start out as strong as we wanted him to be. The quality of schedule that we played early in the season, he saw all kinds of defenses and all kinds of speed and all kinds of mixes. He’s just gotten a lot more comfortable through those experiences and he’s got it going now.”
This year’s Shoremen team had the usual power running game that has given Avon Lake continued success under Dlugosz, but there’s more to the offense this year.
Toy has emerged as a factor the past few weeks, providing the perfect compliment to running back Mike Mansnerus.
“If they load up on our running game, our passing game has really improved in the last month,” Dlugosz said. “If they load up on the passing game, we have the ability to be a power football team.”
Amherst saw this first hand in Week 10 when they keyed on Mansnerus early. On a fourth down, Toy made the Comets pay with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Ronnie Willoughby. Later in the half as time was running down, Toy hit Willoughby again, this time for an 89-yard score. The success in the passing game allowed Mansnerus to run wild in the second half, where he gained 150 of his 226 yards for the Shoremen.
Toy’s confidence grew as the season went on, and it showed.
“After starting out so bad this year, my teammates keep giving me the confidence I needed to believe in what I was doing on the field,” Toy said after the win over Amherst.
Willoughby worked extra hard this past offseason, and it’s paid off for both he and Toy. The 6-foot-4 junior caught 24 passes for 546 yards, more than 22 yards per catch. Five of Toy’s seven touchdowns were to Willoughby.
“He pushed it a little harder over the summer and all of a sudden he dropped his 40 (yard dash) time about two or three-tenths of a second and now he’s not just a bad matchup height-wise, but also not a great matchup speed-wise because he can run pretty well,” Dlugosz said.
The only time the Shoremen have faced Maumee was in the second round of the 2003 playoffs on the way to a Division II state title. Avon Lake prevailed 41-7.
“It’s an advantage knowing who Maumee is, but as far as what they’re doing now, it’s much much different than when we played them before,” Dlugosz said. “They didn’t run the spread type offense that they’re running now. They were a little bigger back then, too.”
Maumee finished the season with a 9-1 record and a co-Northern Lakes League championship.
Jake Goatley leads the Panther offense. The 5-9 senior threw for 1,853 yards and completed 69 percent of his passes. Dlugosz said that Goatley is also a threat to run the ball.
“It make things even more difficult because you can’t focus on trying to take one of those things away,” Dlugosz added.
Eric Long lines up next to Goatley at running back for Maumee. He ran for 844 yards on just 130 carries this year, a 6.5-yard average.
At receiver, Damon Contat led the Panthers with 44 receptions for 663 yards.
The Panthers run a 3-3 stack and like to run different blitz packages.
“Their concept of defense is to keep their linebackers clean and let them do some running,” Dlugosz said. “They just run really well.”
Maumee last made the playoffs in 2004. The Panthers made it to the second round where they fell to Tiffin Columbian, 30-7. This is the school’s seventh playoff appearance and 11th NLL title.
The previous meeting took place on a neutral field. This week’s game will take place at Richard Kazmaier Stadium, aptly named after 1951 Heisman winner Richard Kazmaier, a Maumee graduate. Kazmier won the prestigious trophy at Princeton and bypassed an NFL career to attend Harvard Business School.
The Panthers are led by 12th-year coach John Boles.
Dlugosz’s Shoremen will start the playoffs on the road for the second straight year, but the 18th year coach isn’t pressing about the long drive or the hostile environment.
“A football game is a football game,” he said. “Our kids just like to play football, it really doesn’t matter where they’re playing.”
Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on WDLW 1380-AM.
