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Boardman, Struthers renew once-dormant rivalry
By Ryan Buck
BOARDMAN
Unplayed for a decade and absent in the psyche of a generation of Mahoning Valley athletes, the once-legendary rivalry between Boardman and Struthers was revived Tuesday night.
Ironically, childhood best friends were there to usher it back into play.
Pat Birch led the Spartans past Jim Francheschelli’s Wildcats, 55-40 in the first meeting between the schools since the 2005-06 basketball season. Before that, their lone meeting of the previous decade was a 69-55 Spartans win in 1994.
“In other years, we wouldn’t be able to schedule Struthers,” Birch said. “It’s a program where you know you’re going to get their best effort. I knew they were going to be scrappy and physical and we responded tonight.”
Spartans senior guard Brian Fryda scored 20 points, knocking down five 3-pointers as he helped Boardman pull away in the fourth quarter.
Fryda, who drilled three of his five 3’s in the final minutes to fend off a Struthers team led by Ray Phifer’s 20 points, had no idea the two schools shared a storied history.
“Was it big?” Fryda asked.
Boardman administrators had to search through their archives to find the year (1981) that the two schools ended their annual rivalry with Struthers moving to the Mahoning Valley Conference and later Metro Athletic while Boardman remained in the now-defunct Steel Valley.
This season also marked the Spartans’ entrance into the All-American Conference Red Tier, where they will see more local matchups as opposed to their old Federal League schedule. Struthers in the White Tier.
“It’s people you know and it’s a lot more fun playing against them,” Fryda said. “It’s a lot nicer now, especially because of the bus rides because we’d be drained and tired on the rides and we weren’t ready to play a lot of times with the travel that far.”
After a plodding first half, the Wildcats tied the game at 19 on a Phifer basket on their opening third-quarter possession, but four turnovers and errant shooting proved costly.
Fryda responded seconds later with his second 3-pointer of the game to give Boardman a 22-19 lead it never relinquished. The Wildcats were scoreless for the next five minutes as Phifer ran into foul trouble midway through the quarter.
“Any time Ray gets out of the game it causes fits for us,” Francheschelli said.
Jared Jay scored four straight points to put Boardman ahead 29-19 with 2:34 to play.
Fryda began the fourth quarter in similar fashion, burying a triple from the left corner to open play. Phifer converted two free throws to bring Struthers to within six points with 3:15 left.
A quick transition found Fryda open again in the same spot where another 3-pointer gave Boardman a 40-31 lead with 3:00 remaining. Another dagger with 1:55 left — as Birch hoped to drain the clock — led to a double-digit lead.
John Ryan made seven of eight free throws in the final minute — which included a technical foul call on the Struthers bench after a referee’s call went against them — to end the suspense.
Francheschelli, a Struthers native, was excited to see Birch on the opposing sideline.
“It’s always hard to get the kids’ heads around it,” he said. “To them our rivals are Cambell and Poland and I don’t think they understand what this means.”