It’s hard to believe, but the success the Avon football program is enjoying may have come down to a decision made by a
12-year-old. It was a decision that turned goals into goal lines, crossbars into uprights and yellow cards into yellow flags.
“I started playing soccer when I was just 4 years old,” Eagles running back Marquis Harrell said. “When I went into the seventh grade, most of the kids I hung out with started to play football. All my buddies were on the team.”
Harrell made the decision to join his friends on the football team, pushing soccer to the back burner during the fall season. It was an easy choice for him to make, but not an easy one for everyone to accept.
“My parents tried to talk me out of it,” Harrell said. “They didn’t want me to play football at first.
“It took a lot of begging.”
The begging worked and the decision paid off. Harrell, now a senior, turned in his second straight 1,000-yard rushing season during a year the Eagles were almost exclusively known for their high-octane passing attack.
Through 11 games this season, Harrell has rushed 150 times for 1,124 yards — 7.5 yards per carry — and 17 touchdowns. It was Harrell’s impressive 48-yard return of the opening kickoff and touchdown run on the opening drive that was the difference in Avon’s 7-0 win over Defiance last weekend in the playoff opener.
“If you look at his yards per carry, he’s got to be one of the top running backs around,” Eagles coach Mike Elder said.
“He’s put up more yards this season on a lot less carries than last year. People have the perception that we’re a spread team, when in reality this season we ran the ball about 60 percent of the time and threw it around 40 percent.”
It just wasn’t Harrell running it all the time. With the area’s top offense putting up 43.5 points per game during the regular season, Harrell and the rest of the Avon starters spent more than a third of the games on the sideline due to lopsided leads in the second half.
“He played some teams where he could have easily rushed for 300 yards and he finished with around 70,” Elder said. “That shows you how he’s bought into the team concept.”
It was another easy decision, according to Harrell. The running back said this year’s team, led by the senior class, did the work during the offseason and progressed week to week in practice to the point where the Eagles were a well-oiled machine.
“We just want to win,” he said. “We just go into games knowing we have great athletes all over the field who are capable of making big plays all the time. Everyone’s really close on the team. We’ve all developed such a strong bond.”
Elder calls Harrell a “hybrid” running back, capable of using both speed and size to pick up every available yard when he’s handed the ball. But the versatility surrounding Harrell doesn’t end with his skills as a running back. He also hauled in 16 passes for over 200 yards, is the team’s top kickoff return man and, until early this season, had served as the Eagles’ kicker — something that helped him stay connected to his soccer roots but something he realized he couldn’t continue to do.
“He’d look great in practice but when we got into a game it’d be a different story,” Elder said. “We came to realize that he’d just carried the ball eight times in a drive or just ripped off a 75-yard touchdown run.”
“It was tough to stay focused on extra points or to give it my all during kickoffs,” Harrell said.
Now he only has to focus on hitting holes and punishing defenders, something he’s well-equipped to do.
“He looks like your typical (NCAA) Division I running back,” Elder said. “He’s big and strong, and he’s quicker rather than faster. He makes good decisions to get around a defender instead of just trying to use speed to run around them.”
Apparently college scouts agree. Harrell has gotten looks from several colleges and listed Ohio University as the school that tops his list right now. He’s been in contact with the Bobcats coaches, and the Eagles’ 11-0 season certainly hasn’t hurt him at all.
“I think a lot of guys on the team at the beginning of the season were under the radar,” Harrell said. “Especially the guys on the line. They took a lot of criticism because people thought they were too small. But they just got after it, and all the credit for what I’ve done the last two years goes to them.”
Spoken like a true running back. Harrell seems to have a niche for this sport called football. Of course, that doesn’t mean the choice he made before seventh grade would have been horrible had he went the other way.
“He could have been an All-Ohio soccer player as well,” Elder said. “But he chose to play football instead … thankfully for us.”
Contact Shaun Bennett at 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com.

TONIGHT’S GAME

WHAT: Division III, Region 10 semifinal
TIME: 7 o’clock
WHERE: Kalahari Field at Huron Memorial Stadium
RADIO: WEOL 930-AM, WOBL 1320-AM

Avon Eagles

COLORS: Purple and Gold
CONFERENCE: West Shore
RECORD: 11-0, 7-0 WSC
PLAYOFF HISTORY: 3rd appearance (last in 2004)
PLAYOFF RECORD: 3-2
STATE TITLES: 0
COACH: Mike Elder, 2nd year

Noteworthy

• The Eagles have been on a steady climb during their playoff appearances. They debuted in Division V in 1998, competed in Division IV in 2004 and are in Division III this season. Tiffin Columbian is headed the other way, competing in Division II for their first nine appearances before dropping to Division III this year.
• Leaders for Avon are Marquis Harrell in scoring (117 points), Alex Tabar in tackles (88), tackes for loss (11) and sacks (5.5) and Matt Logan in interceptions (6).

Season results

8/21    at Aurora    W, 27-24
8/29    Wellington    W, 48-20
9/5    at Columbia    W, 42-6
9/12    at Fairview    W, 43-12
9/19    Rocky River    W, 41-16
9/26    at Vermilion    W, 41-18
10/3    Midview    W, 51-8
10/10    Firelands    W, 55-20
10/17    at North Ridgeville    W, 42-7
10/24    Bay    W, 45-6
11/1    Defiance    W, 7-0

Stats

POINTS SCORED: 442 (40.2 per game)
POINTS ALLOWED: 137 (12.5)
SHUTOUTS: 1
TIMES SHUT OUT: 0
STREAK: Won 14

Tiffin Columbian Tornadoes

COLORS: Blue and Gold
CONFERENCE: Northern Ohio League
RECORD: 9-2, 6-1 NOL
PLAYOFF HISTORY: 10th appearance
PLAYOFF RECORD: 6-9
STATE TITLES: 0
COACH: Steve Gilbert, 16th year

Noteworthy

• The Tornadoes’ best playoff run came in 2004 when they reached the regional championship before falling 14-0 to Avon Lake, which went on to lose in the state championship game. Tiffin Columbian beat Toledo Central Catholic and Maumee to reach the regional final.
• That season was a bit of redemption for the Tornadoes, as Maumee eliminated them from the postseason the year before and Toledo Central Catholic ousted them in 2002 and again in 2005.
• The Tornadoes have won or shared the Northern Ohio League for the past four years — sharing it this season with Fostoria — and eight of the last nine seasons. The only year in the stretch they didn’t come away with the NOL title was 2004, the year they went deepest in the playoffs.
• Leaders for the Tornadoes include: Jesse Hernandez in tackles (96), Derek Kneeskern in scoring (145 points) and Kelvin Hronek in sacks (11).

Season results

8/22    at Toledo Whitmer    W, 28-20
8/29    at Mansfield Madison    W, 35-7
9/5    Fremont Ross    L, 28-6
9/12    at Shelby    L, 25-14
9/19    Willard    W, 38-76
9/26    Upper Sandusky    W, 44-0
10/3    at Fostoria    W, 34-32
10/10    Norwalk    W, 49-0
10/17    Galion    W, 41-6
10/24    at Bellevue    W, 26-14
11/1    at Bellevue    W, 21-18

Stats

POINTS SCORED: 336 (30.5 per game)
POINTS ALLOWED: 157 (14.3)
SHUTOUTS: 3
TIMES SHUT OUT: 0
STREAK: Won 7

— Shaun Bennett

 

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