While some teams may have given up after a rough start to the season, Spartans coach Joe Ignazio praised his team and staff for not backing down and getting the win.

“We’re demanding of our kids to continue to show up and get better, and they finally responded and put together what we thought they were capable of tonight,” Ignazio said.

“I’m extremely proud of my staff. Some teams would give up in situations like we’re dealing with, but our guys show up every day and they coach their butts off and don’t give up until the last whistle and our kids see that.

“We’ve had conversations about it, and our word this week was ‘dependable.’ We told every kid that we have to depend on each other and now it’s time to go.”

Correspondent photo / Michael Taylor Boardman's Sean O'Horo (6) runs for a short gain.

The Boardman offense took center stage Friday evening, tallying 572 yards of total offense. Boardman quarterback Terence Thomas was the primary architect of that success, accounting for six touchdowns, three rushing and three passing, 204 yards on the ground and another 143 through the air.

According to Thomas, the offensive output was all about capitalizing.

“We practiced hard this week and we just came ready to capitalize, that’s what happened,” he said. “We know we’ve got to keep improving and get better every week.”

When Boardman got the ball, the Spartans wasted no time getting on the scoreboard, with multiple possessions lasting five or less plays.

“We had something like 24 offensive (plays) to their 44 for the first half, which just speaks to how quick we were scoring, and they had to sustain drives,” Ignazio said.

Correspondent photo / Michael Taylor' Boardman's Stephen Conti (9) wraps up Howland's Mason Gentile.

In a 54-point game, the attention is going to be on the offensive side of the ball, but Boardman’s defense held strong, limiting Tigers quarterback David Burman III to 99 passing yards, a completion percentage of 38 percent and a couple near interceptions.

Going into the game, Ignazio was worried about Howland’s size up front, but he was glad to see his team’s physicality win out.

“They’re big up front, and that’s something that we worried about early on this week when we saw them on film,” he said. “I thought they matched the physicality… We’re still not where we need to be there, did some things differently and we’ll get back at it. We’ve got to shore some things up against the run and our guys were competing, but we want to continue to get better there.”

Boardman moves to 2-2 on the year and faces Cardinal Mooney on Friday. Running back Sean O’Horo hopes the team can use this as a springboard to finish the year strong.

“This just brings our mentality back up after last week,” O’Horo said. “It was a tough loss. Now, everyone’s back excited, working together, learned from our loss and now we’re all just playing as a unit I think.”