Boardman’s Cam Thompson, left, celebrates while running into the end zone to score on a punt return touchdown during the first half of their game against East, Friday night at Boardman High School. (David Dermer/Warren Tribune Chronicle)

BOARDMAN — With two weeks left in the regular season, playoff points are at a premium right now and that’s especially true for Boardman and Austintown Fitch ahead of tonight’s matchup, as each team is jostling for postseason positioning in their respective divisions.

Both teams enter the contest at 4-3 and in search of some late-season momentum.

The Falcons sit at eighth in the Division II, Region 5 standings, which would give Fitch a home playoff game in the first round if things hold during these final two weeks. The Falcons snapped a two-game skid with a 38-28 win over Wadsworth last week.

Boardman, meanwhile, is at 12th in the same region, and has dropped its last two games and is coming off a surprise bye week after COVID-19 issues within the Spartans’ program forced a cancellation with Ursuline.

Despite the elevated stakes, both head coaches — T.J. Parker from Austintown Fitch and Seth Antram from Boardman — say their teams are taking things day by day instead of focusing on the bigger picture.

“After the Canfield game (a 41-10 loss for Fitch), we focused on a three-week season, one week at a time,” Parker said. “Like any season, we have goals and aspirations, but the main goal right now is to go 1-0 in Week 2 of our 3-week season and come out of Boardman with a victory.”

Similarly, Antram said the Spartans’ senior class set goals for the program this year, and now it’s a matter of going about their business to accomplish those objectives.

“They know what they have the capability to do. We’ve been in that stretch all season, but especially from Week 5 on, we’re going one week at a time,” he said.

Antram did acknowledge what’s on the table, however.

“Obviously with the two teams we have left (Fitch and Canfield), there are a lot of playoff points we can capitalize on here in these last two games,” he said.

Antram also said the Spartans were able to get their legs under them and mend some minor injuries with the surprise bye week, but the program was shut down until Monday and so couldn’t make much on-field progress. Instead, Boardman’s coaches got scouting reports to the players posthaste to allow them to still prepare in some way.

Fitch, meanwhile, has been banged up in the last few weeks and had a lot of younger players in for injured older players. Parker said to get last week’s win under the circumstances was a weight off the program’s shoulders.

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Austintown Fitch’s Kylen Foster celebrates following a tackle for a loss in the first half of the Falcons’ contest with Massillon.

“To face adversity throughout the game, not only coming to practice every day and week, but to get hit with the same adversity in the game, to overcome that and come out with a win was pretty special, especially on senior night,” he said. “But there’s still a lot of growing to do and (mistakes) that we have to clean up and get fixed if we want to come out with a win this week.”

In the Spartans, Parker is expecting a balanced attack, and says the Spartans feature a “very good mix of speed, strength and size.”

He added, “They can beat you with power, and they can beat you with speed. Seth is doing a great job; on film they’re a well-coached bunch. They’ve bought into whatever those (coaches) are telling them, and it’s produced a winning attitude.”

Terence Thomas is a dual-threat QB that catalyzes the Spartan offense and has totaled 675 yards and 5 touchdowns, while tailback Sean O’Horo is good for tough yards on the ground and has tallied a team-high 803 yards and 6 touchdowns on 127 carries. Out wide, Cam Thompson and Anthony Hightower feature plenty of athleticism in the receiving corps with a combined 629 yards and 5 touchdowns.

“Our philosophy is we want to take away what we think is their strength. With a team that’s so well balanced, you don’t want to say weaknesses, but we want to make them play to areas that they may be weaker in,” Parker said. “With Boardman, that’s harder to find, so we want to take away what we feel are their strengths and play from there.”

Meanwhile, Antram is expecting out of Fitch much of what the Spartans have faced in recent weeks: a team with superb athletes. Quarterback Devin Sherwood, who has thrown for 1,522 yards and 7 touchdowns on 162 attempts while also rushing for a team-high 583 yards and 9 touchdowns, is a versatile playmaker. Wide receiverTyler Evans, who’s caught 31 passes for 577 yards and 2 touchdowns, gives the Falcons a nice receiving threat. Fitch has cycled through some tailbacks in recent weeks due to injuries but D.J. Williams often powers that rushing threat and has tallied 294 yards and 6 touchdowns on 44 attempts.

“They’re athletic on both sides of the ball and very disciplined,” Antram pointed out. “You can tell a lot of these guys have gotten plenty of reps. It’s a veteran team and very well-coached on both sides of the ball and on special teams.”

As such, Antram says the Spartans will have to attack well in space, as well as change up their defensive looks to take away some of Fitch’s threats pre-snap.

Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.