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The Shoremen played one of their finest games of the season, downing Olentangy Liberty by a score of 35-7. The offense was nearly flawless, with no turnovers and only a few relatively harmless penalties. The defense shut down the Patriots’ Wing-T offense all night, as Liberty was held scoreless until 3 minutes were left in the game. Brian Pettys was outstanding again, completing 14 of 19 passes for 132 yards and 2 TD’s. Maxx Schmidt led the ground attack with 82 yards, and backup quarterback Andy Peterson completed his only pass of the night for a 45 yard touchdown.

Liberty returned the opening kickoff to their own 24, and the Shoremen defense quickly set the tone for the game as the patriots went three and out. Starting from their own 48 after the punt, the Shoremen went on a 14 play drive that included two fourth down conversion. Maxx Schmidt went over the top from the one for the TD, and Lyons’ PAT made it 7-0. The teams exchanged punts, and when Liberty punted for the third straight time, disaster struck as Scott Nealon blocked the kick and Jimmy Coyne recovered at the Patriot 29. The Shoremen took six plays to score, cashing in on a Pettys to Chris Nealon pass on fourth and two. The “D” got the ball back quickly and gave the offense a short field again when Dan Spring jarred the ball loose from Patriots’ QB Kyle Endicott and Alex Berry recovered at the Liberty 34. A 27 yard post pattern to Kyle Maurer put the ball on the three, and Chris Rau carried it in from there. Avon Lake took a 27-0 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The third quarter was scoreless, although the Shoremen threatened twice as the missed a couple of field goal attempts. After the second miss, Liberty tried a double pass that was intercepted by Kyle Stokes at the A.L. 47. Twelve plays later, at the start of the fourth quarter, Pettys hit Schmidt for a four yard TD and the Shoremen were in complete control. A couple minutes later, Scott Nealon caught a 45 yard bomb from Peterson down the middle of the field for a 35-0 lead. The Patriots finally scored as Endicott made some beautiful scrambling runs, cashing in from the five when he appeared to be stopped on a sweep to the left, reversed his field, and raced into the end zone. The Shoremen blocked the extra point to make the final score 35-6.

Notes:

· The Shoremen advance to the Regional Finals for the fifth year in a row.

· Before the Liberty’s final 80 yard drive in the fourth quarter, the Shoremen had held the Patriots to 95 total yards of offense.

· Pettys used six different receivers as he ran his season totals to 1,387 yards with 21 TD’s.

· Kicker Johnny Lyons, holder Chris Nealon, and long snapper Scott Davey extended their school record PAT streak to 61, including all 55 this year.

· The Shoremen are now 4-0 over the past three years Fremont Ross Harmon Field. I really like it there!

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Avon Lake	7	14	0	14	35
Liberty	0	0	0	6	6

	Liberty	A.L.
First downs	7	19
Rush Yds	134	145
Pass Yds	41	177
Passes att-comp-int	14-6-1	15-20-0
Fumbles-lost	1-1	1-0
Penalties	1-5	5-40

AL – Schmidt 1 run (Lyons Kick)
AL – Chris Nealon 2 pass from Pettys (Lyons Kick)
AL – Rau 3 run (Lyons Kick)
AL – Schmidt 4 pass from Pettys (Lyons Kick)
AL – Scott Nealon 45 pass from Peterson (Lyons Kick)
OL – Endicott 5 run (kick blocked)