By Greg gulas

sports@vindy.com

Boardman

The Boardman Spartans had a chip on their shoulders after being humbled last week by backyard rival Cardinal Mooney.

On Friday, it was their turn to do the humbling as they racked up 569 yards of total offense en route to a 47-26 win over Akron Hoban at Spartan Stadium.

Turel Thompson, Isiah Lyle and Nathan Jones each scored two touchdowns and Thompson rushed for a game-high 172 yards on just seven carries to pace the Spartans.

After Boardman stopped the Knights on their opening series of the game, it was Thompson who set the tone for the Spartans as he raced 90 yards for the score on their opening play and the early 7-0 advantage.

“We had great perimeter blocking the entire game and our offensive line did an excellent job by opening a nice hole for me on our first play of the game,” Thompson said. “This was a big win because we bounced back from last week’s loss to Cardinal Mooney. We can’t take anything for granted and must continue to work hard because we begin Federal League play next week at Canton GlenOak.”

With 1:14 remaining in the first quarter, Jones scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 17 yard pass from Darius Sanders as Boardman (2-1) increased its lead to 14-0.

The Knights’ Jake Tersigni then countered with a 64-yard run of his own just 23 seconds later to cut the Spartans lead in half, 14-7, heading to the second quarter.

Boardman increased their lead to 21-7 when Lyle notched the first of his two scores, this one coming on a 3-yard run at the 4:31 mark of the period.

The Knights (0-3) then countered on the very next series as Dominick Orsini found Jimmy Martter from 11 yards away to cut the Spartans lead to 21-13.

The Spartans’ offense couldn’t be stopped in the third period as their first three possessions produced three touchdowns, all via the ground game to make it 40-13 with 12 minutes remaining.

Lyle, who rushed for 118 yards on 16 totes, scored on a 15 yard run at the 8:26 mark. Jones then added his second touchdown of the night on a 12-yard run. Finally, John Babos went off tackle on a 66-yard run.

“A win is a win and we’ll take that, but we must get better as we enter the grind of the Federal League season,” Spartans coach Mark D’Eramo said. “We can’t expect to win when we muff punts, leave the ball on the ground and get penalized unnecessarily. That is what we need to work on most.

“We had a nice offensive snowing tonight. Turel got us going early and that helped. He’s a competitor — a sparkplug who makes big plays and always wants the ball in his hands.”

Akron Hoban answered with two scores in the final period, the first coming on an Orsini 10 yard pass to Dan Lloyd at 10:17 and the other on a six-yard pass from Orsini to Tersigni at 5:46 as the Knights cut the Boardman lead to 40-26.

Thompson then rounded out the scoring with his second tally of the night, this time from nine yards away at the 2:37 mark to seal the victory.

Boardman rushed for 496 yards on 52 plays, an average of 9.5 yards per carry with 13 going for 10 yards or better.

Orsini completed 23 of 46 passes for 214 yards as the Knights had 333 yards of total offense.