Avon High’s Nik Meltser (5) became just the sixth athlete in school history to score 5 TDs in a single game on Thursday night.
MANCHESTER, Sept. 14, 2023 – Junior Nik Meltser ran for a career-high 228 yards and five touchdowns to help the Avon High football team win their season opener with a 36-0 win over East Catholic Thursday night in Central Connecticut Conference play at Cheney Tech.
The Falcons played a little over one half of football a week ago against RHAM before lightning and heavy rain forced a suspension and postponement of the contest until October.
On Thursday night, the Falcons ran for 408 yards on 47 carries and pitched their first opening day shutout since beating East Catholic, 34-0 in 2017. Avon had five sacks in the game, four tackles for a loss and one interception.
“Coming out of the RHAM game, we knew we were beating ourselves a little bit,” Avon head coach Brenden Smith said. The visiting Raptors have a 28-8 lead.
“We watched film really hard this week and scouted ourselves on the little things that needed to change and what kind of changed our approach a little bit,” Smith said. “We had some good, small group discussions on what we needed to do differently and I think they responded to that.”
Avon (1-0) runs the single-wing offense, a scheme that is heavily focused on running the ball. The Falcons didn’t throw a pass in the game.
They didn’t need to. Meltser ran for 228 yards and five touchdowns while John Murphy ran for a career-high 93 yards on 17 carries while Nick Seminara had a career-high 79 yards on four carries.
Murphy had 1½ sacks for 23 yards lost while Seminara had two sacks for 12 yards lost. Derek Graves came up with his first interception of the season after the ball was deflected into the air by a Falcon teammate.
“The defensive was great,” Smith said. “(Defensive coordinator) Matt (Redman) had a great game plan going in. Our goal was to get to the QB and we did a good job speeding him all night. We knew if we pressured him he would struggle to make throws and we did that.”
East Catholic QB Christian Morales managed to gain 33 yards on 18 carries but in the air, he was 5-of-18 with 47 yards and one interception.
On their second drive of the game, Avon took an 8-0 lead after a 12-play, 65-yard march. Meltser got the Falcons on the board with a nine-yard run and added in the two-point conversion.
East Catholic responded with nice drive to the Avon 19-yard-line. But on third down and six, Murphy sacked Morales for a 13-yard loss to stifle the drive. An incomplete pass ended the drive for the Eagles.
East Catholic’s march was interrupted by a 45-minute delay when Avon’s Jaidyn Perry broke his arm making a tackle. Perry was taken to the Connecticut Children’s Hospital in Hartford for treatment.
John Murphy, right, goes to sack East Catholic QB Christian Morales in Thursday night’s shutout win in Manchester.
Avon took over on the Eagle’s 32-yard line and marched 68 yards on nine plays to take a 16-0 lead with 49 seconds left in the first half on a four-yard run for Meltser and a two-point conversion run from Murphy. Meltser had runs of 13 and 14 yards on the drive while Murphy had a pair of 11-yard runs.
On Avon’s first drive of the second half, the Falcons scored on an eight-yard run from Meltser for a 22-0 lead with 3:35 left in the third quarter to cap off a 10-play, 78-yard drive. Murphy had a 21-yard run to the East Catholic eight-yard line while Seminara had a 19-yard run earlier in the drive.
Meltser made it 28-0 on a 92-yard run with 9:32 left in the game. It’s the third longest run for a touchdown in school history. Ross McDonald (99 yards vs. Enfield, 2009) and Larry Locke (99 yards vs. Windsor Locks, 1993) share the school record.
After Graves intercepted the ball, a 30-yard run from Seminara moved the ball to the East Catholic 15-yard line. Meltser added his fifth TD with 6:17 remaining with Murphy getting the two-point conversion run for a 36-0 lead.
Meltser is the sixth player in school history to score five touchdowns in a single game. The last player to do that was Tabor Engle in 2021 against Rocky Hill.
With five touchdowns and a two-point conversion run, Meltser scored 32 points, which ties him with three other players. The school record for most points in a game is 34 by Mike D’Onofrio against Housatonic in 2007.
Avon returns to action next Friday when they travel to challenge East Lyme at 6:30 p.m. It will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs in football and is part of the Connecticut Football Alliance, an initiative with six of the eight high school football conferences to arrange challenging out-of-league contests for teams.
There are 88 games this season between schools in the Central Connecticut Conference, Southern Connecticut Conference (SCC), Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference (FCIAC), Eastern Connecticut Conference (ECC), Southwest Conference (SWC) and the CTC (Connecticut Technical Conference).
The games are based on a team’s recent performance, playoff class and availability and are determined by a committee.
Avon 36, East Catholic 0
At Manchester
Avon (1-0) 0 16 6 14 – 36
East Catholic (0-2) 0 0 0 0 — 0
Second quarter
A: Nik Meltser 9 run (Meltser run), 10:40
A: Meltser 4 run (John Murphy run), 0:49
Third quarter
A: Meltser 8 run (run fails), 3:35
Fourth quarter
A: Meltser 92 run (run fails), 9:52
A: Meltser 15 run (Murphy run), 6:17
Individual statistics
RUSHING: Avon – Nik Meltser 21-228, John Murphy 17-94, Nick Seminara 4-79, Carter Davies 1-7, David Minami 4-1; East Catholic – Caleb Munoz 1-5, Ryan Wilson 3-3, Charlie Penders 9-32, Christian Morales 18-33
PASSING: Avon – none; East Catholic – Christian Morales 5-18-1, 47
RECEIVING: East Catholic – Mason Mangene 1-14, Drew DeLaura 3-15, Charlie Penders 1-18
SACKS: Avon – Murphy 1½-18, Seminara 2-12, Reyan Fawad 1-13, Andrew Sielski ½-10; INTERCEPTIONS: Derek Graves (A) 1-0; KICKOFF RETURNS: Meltser (A) 1-18
