Well-Rounded Eagles Earn Fifth Straight Win over Ottawa

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Five different Eagles factored into touchdowns on offense, the Avila defense held Ottawa to single digits, and the special teams often dazzled, especially in the return game: Avila football once again excelled in all phases of the game, and the Eagles (2-0, 2-0 KCAC) cruised to a 39-9 victory over Ottawa (0-2, 0-2 KCAC) on Saturday afternoon at The Z.

Avila has now won all five matchups against their geographical rival since the Eagles joined the KCAC in 2018. A couple of those prior meetings were close, but this one, to put it simply, was not. Avila football is now 2-0 to start the 2022 season, and the Eagles have outscored their first two opponents 80-16: the Eagles rank in the top 25 nationally in points, points per game and rushing yards in the early stages of the season.

Playing in front of an excited and loud crowd at the 2022 football home opener at The Z, it didn't take long for the Eagles to get up and running. Avila forced Ottawa into a three-and-out on the game's first drive, and the Eagle special teams made an immediate impact: Adam Gilbert delivered a strong 41-yard punt but new return man Melvin Reid returned that punt 37 yards up the right sideline, setting the Eagles up on the Brave 25 yard line on their first possession. Five plays later, Malik Nesbitt broke around left tackle and into the end zone from three yards out to put Avila on the board four minutes into the game.

Billy Maples earned a surprise start at quarterback for the Braves and coughed up the ball on his second series. Antonio Moore fell on it, once again starting a drive for the Eagle offense in plus territory. Facing a 3^rd and 24 after a sack on second down, Eli Williams hit Lukas Hamilton for 38 yards and a first down, and then three plays later Williams plunged into the end zone himself in his first start as an Eagle, increasing Avila's lead to 13-0.

With touchdowns on each of their first two drives, it seemed like the Eagles were poised to break the game open for good right there. To the Braves' credit, they buckled down in somewhat in the second quarter to make sure that didn't happen – not immediately anyway. Lewis McMullen made a field goal midway through the second quarter but both teams missed place kicks later on in that period, and Avila took a 13-3 lead back into the locker room.

Halftime belonged to the Avila dance team, which was presented with their rings from their pair of national championship victories at the 2022 Dance Team Union College Classic in Orlando. But after that ceremony, the football team went right back to work: playing against his former team for the first time, JaQuez Snell returned the second half kickoff 60 yards to the Ottawa 23 yard line, once again setting the offense up in excellent position. Williams once again cashed in, though it wasn't necessarily a sure thing for him: on fourth down, Williams' pass was batted up into the air by a Brave defender and bobbled but ultimately caught in the back of the end zone by Kendal Wooley for his first career touchdown.

Later in the third, Ottawa restricted Reid to a measly 11 yards on a punt return, but an Ottawa personal foul pushed Avila's starting field position up to the Braves' 25 yard line anyway. From there, it was the Williams and Nesbitt show: the quarterback carried the ball three times, passed to Nesbitt once, and the running back did the rest, once again pushing through left end for his second touchdown of the day, bringing the score up to 27-3.

Then it was the defense's time to shine. In the third quarter, the Eagle defense forced two three-and-outs, allowed only two first downs, and capped off a shutout period with an interception from Ke'Tron Jones. Avila failed to score on a goal-to-go situation to start the fourth, but on Ottawa's first play on the next drive Monte Toney bulldozed through the line and dropped quarterback Noah Shoeman out of the back of the end zone for a safety, giving the Eagles two points anyway.

Ottawa had to kick the ball right back to Avila, and Reid once again did his thing, returning the short kick 48 yards to the Ottawa 30 yard line. Kyle DeOrio entered to play quarterback, and he lofted his first pass of the day a few yards shy of the end zone where Robert Brooks III made the grab, turned and simply outmuscled his defender to cross the goal line for his first career score.

Avila forced another turnover when Nikolas Furlow bodied Ceisean Tucker, jarring the ball loose for Jones to recover, but the Braves swiftly returned the favor with a fumble recovery of their own. Maples returned as the Ottawa quarterback and engineered a solid drive that ended in a touchdown pass to Isaac Gibson to get the Braves in the end zone with under ten minutes still to play, the first touchdown the Avila defense had allowed this season.

The Eagles took over one final time, starting on their own side of the field for once. That didn't much matter though: Joshua Pettit looked sharp in his Avila debut as a gadget back, and DeOrio connected on tap sweeps to Travon Jacobs and Kareem Chambers to steadily motor down the field. Ultimately, Kaivon Mortazavi connected on a 28-yard field goal, atoning somewhat for some earlier misses, putting the finishing touches on a nice round 30-point victory for the Eagles in their home opener.

Despite the continually excellent field position, Avila possessed the ball for more than 47 minutes, and finished with 405 yards of offense compared to 253 for Ottawa, and the Braves were successful on just one of their ten third-down conversion attempts. Nesbitt rushed for 73 yards (4.6 per carry) and two scores; Reid recorded a grand total of 123 yards on four total kick and punt returns; Furlow, DJ Mickell and Javon Taylor tied for the team lead with six tackles, and all three had at least one tackle for loss.

Up next, Avila football will return to the road for a KCAC matchup next Saturday, September 17 in Lindsborg, Kansas against Bethany. Kickoff is currently scheduled for 7 PM; as always, you can watch all the action live on the KCAC Network.