Avon outlasts Centerville for Great Plains Conference championship

AVON — Avon reclaimed the Great Plains Conference championship after out-dueling Centerville in a shootout on Friday.

The Pirates outlasted the Tornadoes, 48-40, for the Great Plains Conference football championship and finished the regular season with a 6-2 record.

“It's been a long time since we've had this conference championship in Avon,” Avon senior Grayson Ratzlaff said. “It just feels good to bring it back home.”

Coach Justin Lukkes isn’t sure the last time Avon won the conference championship, but he understood the magnitude of it for the program and community.

“It means more to me and some of the other coaches that are born and raised here,” Lukkes said. “But it's been too long and I'm glad to have it back.”

The Tornadoes (6-2) and their potent offensive attack caused fits for Avon, which trailed 28-16 in the third quarter. The Pirates were clinging to a 16-12 halftime advantage, but Centerville’s Logan Ruter scored a pick-six for a 20-16 lead. Charlie Eide added another Centerville interception on the next possession, followed up by a 31-yard touchdown strike to Luke Petersen and a 28-16 Tornado lead.

“Everything you didn’t want to happen, happened right away in the third,” Lukkes said. “But they responded very well. We've been trying to tell them all year when you make mistakes, everybody makes mistakes, but you gotta try to forget about them and move on.”

The Pirates answered with four straight touchdowns, pulling ahead for a 40-28 lead midway through the fourth quarter. Cale Cooper scored back-to-back touchdowns, evening the score at 28-28.

Then, pinned deep in their own territory, Avon quarterback Easton Sees busted loose for a 97-yard touchdown run and a 34-28 Avon lead.

“That was very big,” Lukkes said. “He's a good track runner. He loves that quarter (400-meter dash) and I'm like, ‘Use that damn quarter speed. Get outside and run then,’ and he showed it there. That was a good run.”

Later in the fourth quarter, Ratzlaff added a 44-yard touchdown run on fourth down and a 40-28 Avon advantage with 6:39 left. Centerville quickly moved into scoring possession, capped by an Eide to Luke Petersen 10-yard touchdown pass.

Clinging to a 40-34 lead, Cooper added a 15-yard touchdown jaunt and a 48-34 advantage with 2:29 left. Eide connected with Petersen for a four-yard touchdown pass with 1:23 left, cutting the deficit to 48-40.

Centerville forced Avon to punt on its next possession and took over at its own 17-yard line with 44 ticks left. But Avon’s defense stopped Centerville on the next drive for the win.

“We knew it was going to be a battle ‘til the end,” Ratzlaff said. “We knew they were a good team, and we knew we were going to have to battle all the way.” 

Centerville struck first on the game’s first drive. Eide tossed a 66-yard touchdown reception to Ruter on the game’s second play from scrimmage.

Ratzlaff got Avon on the board with a nine-yard touchdown run, and Avon led 8-6 at the 9:30 mark in the second quarter. Cooper followed it up with a three-yard touchdown run, giving Avon a 16-6 edge. Eide’s four-yard touchdown run with 44 seconds left in the first half made it 16-12.

“The boys played a hard-fought game,” Lukkes said. “I told them Centerville's a great team, and they came to play, and we'd have to take all four quarters to do it.”

Up next, Avon and Centerville will play in the playoffs on Oct. 22. Centerville will host Ipswich in the Class 9A playoffs.

Avon, meanwhile, will host Iroquois/Lake Preston in the Class 9B playoffs.

“I think the boys have the ability and the talent to go somewhere in the playoffs,” Lukkes said. “We got to be firing on all cylinders and be ready to go.”