Local Sports

Lisbon gets another helping of Spaghetti Bowl

LISBON -- Lisbon senior lineman Ryan Spotleson has played on both sides of the Spaghetti Bowl during his high school football career.

On Thursday night in the Columbiana County high school football season opener, Spotleson was handed the Spaghetti Bowl trophy first after Lisbon overcame four turnovers in a 14-0 win over Leetonia at War Memorial Stadium.

“I think it’s very cool (being on both teams),” Spotleson said. “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s the oldest continuous rivalry in Columbiana County. I did lose twice at Leetonia, but it is amazing.”

Spotleson came to Lisbon his junior year after two years with the Bears. He knew how bad Leetonia wanted the win.

“Leetonia works hard. They are my brothers. I’ve been there,” Spotleson said. “My brother was a senior at Leetonia and I wanted to finish the season out with him but I had planned to come here earlier.”

Lisbon senior quarterback Grant Minor shouldered a lot of the offensive load for the winners as he scored a 1-yard touchdown with 11:35 left in the second quarter to give the Devils a 7-0 lead. While he did throw three interceptions on the night, he managed to toss a game-sealing 22-yard shovel pass to Wyatt Newbold with 7:50 left in the game to persevere the win.

“A rivalry game is a rivalry game,” Lisbon coach Bill Meek said. “When you move it to the first week and it becomes all that bigger. When you move it to Thursday it becomes bigger still.”

Meek said he wasn’t too concerned with the interceptions because he has seen good quarterbacks do that from time to time.

“I told Grant at halftime back when we were 9-1 one year Josh Liberati had not had an interception through eight or nine games then we played Columbiana and he had three or four,” Meek said. “It happens and what matters is how you respond to it. He’s a great quarterback and our team leader and he was rushed all night. I don’t know if all of those are on him.”

Lisbon’s seniors who were on the team all four years have four wins against the Bears. The Devils have won six straight in the series.

Meek credited defensive coordinator Seth Davis with turning around a Lisbon defense which has struggled in recent seasons.

“That’s the thing I am most proud of tonight,” Meek said. “Seth Davis is an outstanding coach and he puts in so much time. We’ve really struggled the last two or three years before we played well in the playoffs in the last game last year and we played doggone good today.”

The Bears did not make a first down until 10:46 of the third quarter and did not run a play in Lisbon territory in the first half. Leetonia had a chance to tie or go ahead with a first and goal at the 1 at the end of the third quarter but the Devils turned Leetonia back four times. Leetonia also had the ball deep in Lisbon territory one more time off a turnover but gave it right back.

“Lisbon had a great defensive game plan,” Leetonia coach Matt Altomare said. “Football’s a funny game because Lisbon had their opportunities in the first half too.”

Leetonia’s defensive front made Minor, one of Columbiana County’s top returning quarterbacks, run and rush throws. The Bears also got a few big hits on him as well.

“Our defense just played so hard,” Altomare said. “They kept them out of the end zone all those times, but they’re the same kids on the offense but at the same time you get the ball down near your goal line and there wasn’t much you could do.”

Jason King came up big on defense for Leetonia with an interception and a fumble recovery off a punt.

Graydon Henderson and Dylan Brown also had interceptions.

Lisbon is at Lowellville next Friday. Leetonia is scheduled to host Vanlue next Friday.

Notes

• This was the 18th time the two teams played on Thursday. From 1927-1932 the teams played on Thanksgiving. There were also October games in 1945 and 1953. When the Bears and Devils went into different tiers of the Inter-Tri County League, the pair played Thursday games to open the season from 2006 to 2014.

• This was the earliest date in the season the Bears and Devils have played.

• An inadvertent whistle on a put return that Lisbon ended up fumbling and Leetonia recovered held up the game for several minutes in the third quarter as officials tried to figure out what to do since the whistle came right before the fumble. After a lot of discussion the down ended up being replayed.

LE:0-0-0-0 -- 0

LI:0-7-0-7 -- 14

SCORING

LI -- Grant Minor 1 run (Baylen Jackson kick)

LI -- Wyatt Newbold 22 pass from Minor (Baylen Jackson kick)

TEAM STATS

LEETONIA

First downs: 6; Total yards: 113; Rushes-yards: 24-31; Passing: 82; Comp-Att-Int. 12-23-0; Punts 6-29.3; Fumbles-Lost 1-1; Penalties-Yards 5-45

LISBON

First downs: 13; Total yards: 186; Rushes-yards: 30-86; Passing: 102; Comp-Att-Int. 11-21-3; Punts 3-20; Fumbles-Lost 1-1; Penalties-Yards 5-40

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING -- Leetonia, Dylan Johns 9-25, Lisandro Williamson 7-5, Brayden Gainey 5-5, Joe McGath 2-(-2), Jason King 1-4; Lisbon, Grant Minor 16-57, Devin Kelly 10-11, Cooper Terdina 4-18

PASSING -- Leetonia, Dylan Johns 12-23-0, 82 yards; Lisbon, Grant Minor 11-21-102-3

RECEIVING -- Leetonia, Brayden Gainey 5-30, Jason King 4-30, Dylan Brown 3-12, Graydon Henderson 1-7; Lisbon, Cooper Terdina 5-37, Wyatt Newbold 2-20, Nick Peruchetti 1-20, Ian Brown 1-10, Zylar Mundy 1-11, Brady Lively 1-0

INTERCEPTIONS -- Leetonia, Jason King, Graydon Henderson, Dylan Brown; Lisbon, none

FUMBLE RECOVERIES -- Leetonia, Jason King; Lisbon, Grant Minor