SCALZO: A terrific game that leaves you hoping for more

boardman

The Boardman High School gym holds about 3,000 people if, as Spartans athletic director Dave Smercansky said, “everybody loves each other.”

That many people squeezing in that tightly can spark all kinds of tension, particularly in a game featuring two schools that — you may have heard — don’t like each other all that much.

Add in two rabid student sections — Mooney with its red roller-coaster leading fanatics and Poland’s typically frenzied fans aided by a heaping helping of Struthers students — and you get pregame chants like these:

“Cardinal Money!”

“Let’s play soccer!”

“Buy more students!”

In the midst of this madness, Bulldogs boys basketball coach Ken Grisdale gathered his team in a huddle and told his players, “This isn’t for the football team. This isn’t for the soccer team. This is for you.”

And over the next 32 minutes, the area’s best basketball program held off the area’s best football program for a 75-65 victory that healed a lot of broken hearts in Poland — and, maybe, helped heal some bad blood between the two schools.

“You don’t like to put two sports together but after they ended our football season, this one was really nice,” admitted Bulldog senior guard Luke Wollet, who rarely left the field in Poland’s 24-7 loss to Mooney in November’s Division III regional football final. “Losing this game to anyone would have been bad, but to Mooney, who ended your soccer and football seasons — that would have just been demoralizing to Poland sports.”

The schools hadn’t played each other in basketball since a tension-filled game four years ago, a game that prompted the schools to stop scheduling each other in any sport in the regular season.

That decision frustrated fans and made the tournament matchups that much more intense. And considering Mooney’s domination in its final two football playoff games, it’s not a stretch to say the Bulldogs may have lost the state championship game in November.

Add in a 2-0 loss in the district boys soccer final and, well, you can see why there was so much riding on Saturday’s outcome.

“We don’t play very much, but when we do, they’re wars,” Grisdale said. “There’s a lot of pride in both communities.”

Saturday’s game was sold out on Friday, with Poland going through its allotment of tickets by Thursday. Boardman actually sold 150 more tickets than there were seats — fans lined the baseline under both baskets — and Smercansky just laughed when his friends made last-minute ticket requests.

“I don’t have any,” he said.

The game was big enough to draw Mooney grad Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini (who was in town because of the premiere of his Youngstown documentary — and who didn’t get a seat) as well as a couple uniformed officers, a couple plain-clothed officers and, of course, Mooney principal Sister Jane Marie Kudlacz, who stood in front of the Cardinals students to make sure things didn’t get out of hand.

They didn’t. The game wasn’t chippy. The officials didn’t make — or miss — any controversial calls. And the student sections were more funny than mean.

And in the final minute, when Poland clinched the game on a monster dunk by Ben Donlow, the students started chanting “Na-na-na-na, Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye.”

Mooney’s response? The state football medals, of course.

“This is turning into a nice rivalry,” said Wollet, “and I’m sure they’ll start scheduling more during the season.

Wishful thinking? Perhaps.

Smart thinking? No doubt.

scalzo@vindy.com