High school football: Colton Wadle makes storybook debut at QB as Highland routs Avon Lake

GRANGER TWP. — Even the best of dreams don't end up as good as this one did for Highland quarterback Colton Wadle. Making his first career start Friday, the 6-foot-4, 200-pound sophomore was 11-for-11 passing for 270 yards, ran the ball 11 times for another 39 yards and accounted for six touchdowns to lead the Hornets to a 55-20 non-league win over Avon Lake. "I had a lot of confidence coming into the game," he said. "Doing good in practice and working hard all week. We came in prepared for the game." Wadle's first attempt — a swing pass to Anthony DePompei (8 total touches, 55 yards) — went for 0 yards, but then he started cooking. On the second play from scrimmage, Wadle hit wide receiver Ben Radigan (3 catches, 128 yards, 2 TDs) on a deep post over the middle for an 80-yard touchdown. "The game plan was to throw it deep and get me in the groove," Wadle said. "That first touchdown just got me going. It got the nerves out and got me ready." Wadle had half of his first six passes go the distance, hitting Radigan again from 45 yards on the third drive for Highland (2-1) and Evan Foust (6 touches, 126 yards from scrimmage) for a 63-yard catch-and-run to give the Hornets a 21-0 lead just 1:02 into the second quarter. "We won the toss and chose to receive because we wanted to set the tone early," said Foust, who also had three tackles for loss from his linebacker spot. "We had a close game against Strongsville last week (a 31-27 Highland win), and we really wanted to show with Suburban League play coming next week that we're coming in this new National Conference." Wadle added TD runs of 8 and 7 yards to build the lead to 35-0. Jake Weber then picked off Avon Lake quarterback Dawson Tenbrink (10-of-25 passing, 156 yards, 3 TDs, 3 INTs; 8 carries, 53 yards) and made the house call from 21 yards to make it 42-0 with 3:10 left in the half. "I thought our defense was really good tonight," Foust said. "We definitely have some things to work on, but I feel like overall I think we did pretty good." The second half began with a running clock despite the Shoremen (0-3) finally getting on the board with a strong 13-play, 80-yard drive, culminating in a Tenbrink 13-yard pass to Chris Gaulding (9 cathces, 84 yards, 2 TDs). Avon Lake wasn't done battling, as Tenbrink and the offense started clicking. The Shoremen stopped the running clock and pulled to 42-20 with a pair of third-quarter scores. "At the end of the day, it was great to see our fight, but this pattern keeps emerging of us kind of giving up cheap points on blown coverages and not getting started," Avon Lake coach Matt Kostelnik said. "Then we get a barrage of offense. It was great to see us settle down. We were hitting who we were supposed to hit and getting into the end zone." Prior to the three-score outburst, the Shoremen had just 34 yards total offense. The second score was set up by a fumble recovery by Avon Lake sophomore linebacker Wakely Casterline. The Shoremen got the ball back after a Highland punt, butTenbrink was picked off by Hornets linebacker Nathan Capotosto, who returned it 37 yards to the Avon Lake 13. A pair of big stops from Thomas Rodkey (6 tackles for loss, sack) pushed Highland back before Wadle struck again with a 17-yard touchdown to Weber to give the Hornets a 48-20 lead. The two-point attempt failed. Highland officially ended any chance of a comeback when Nate Painter nabbed an interception and rumbled 29 yards to the end zone to restart the running clock. Contact Chad Grant at sports@medina-gazette.com. Highland 55, Avon Lake 20 AVON LAKE &emsp;&emsp;0 6 14 0 — 20 HIGHLAND &emsp;&emsp;14 28 0 13 — 55 First H — Ben Radigan 80 pass from Colton Wadle (Jonah Kowza kick), 11:08. H — Radigan 45 pass from Wadle (Kowza kick), 3:12. Second H — Evan Foust 63 pass from Wadle (Kowza kick), 10:58. H — Wadle 8 run (Kowza kick), 7:40. H — Wadle 7 run (Kowza kick), 3:18. H — Jake Weber 21 interception return (Kowza kick), 3:10. A — Chris Gaulding 12 pass from Dawson Tenbrink (kick failed), 0:09. Third A — Jacob Perry 19 pass from Tenbrink (Kyle Anderson kick), 6:33. A — Gaulding 13 pass from Tenbrink (Anderson kick), 2:52. Fourth H — Weber 17 pass from Wadle (pass failed), 7:26. H — Nate Painter 29 interception return (Kowza kick), 6:22. &emsp;&emsp;A &emsp;&emsp;H First downs &emsp;&emsp;17 &emsp;&emsp;13 Rushing &emsp;&emsp;27/109 27/128 Rushing average &emsp;&emsp;4.0 &emsp;&emsp;4.7 Passing &emsp;&emsp;12/27&emsp;&emsp;11/11 Passing yards &emsp;&emsp;167 &emsp;&emsp;270 Total offense &emsp;&emsp;54/276 38/398 Punting &emsp;&emsp;5/36.4 2/47.5 Penalties &emsp;&emsp;4/40 14/119 Fumbles &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;0/0 &emsp;&emsp;1/1 RUSHING: Avon Lake — Tenbrink 8-53, Drake Rudnicki 13-26, Michael Ambrose 2-15, John Donahue 2-12, Andrew Kidwell 2-3. Highland — Foust 5-63, Wadle 11-39, DePompei 5-15, Colton Winston 4-14, Levi Clark 1-8, Team 1-(-11). PASSING: Avon Lake — Tenbrink 10-25-156-3, Ambrose 2-2-11-0. Highland — Wadle 11-11-270-0. RECEIVING: Avon Lake — Gaulding 9-84, Andrew Good 1-59, Perry 1-19, Rudnicki 1-5. Highland — Radigan 3-128, Foust 1-63, DePompei 3-40, Weber 3-33, Frankie Iannaggi 1-6.