Reigning state champion Glenville kicks Hoban in the mouth; Knights football fights back

Hoban was shut out for only the fifth time in any quarter and for the first time in any half this season.

Legendary Glenville football coach Ted Ginn Sr. orchestrated an offense that outgained the Knights by 92 yards.

It was exactly what Hoban needed on Friday in a 28-16 win over the reigning Division IV state champion Tarblooders.

Despite facing two reigning state champions (Frederick Douglass, Ky., and Trinity Episcopal School, Va.) and six playoff teams coming into Friday, Hoban (7-0) had hardly been tested.

Every game ended with a running clock. Hoban went through the motions at the end of every game with its starters on the bench watching mop-up play.

Then Friday came and Glenville (5-3) put things in doubt.

“We needed that,” Hoban coach Tim Tyrrell said. “We were coming off that Walsh game (a 57-7 win) where it was rivalry week, spirit week and all that kind of stuff. I tore into the coaches on the headset when we started. I said we weren’t going to be in it mentally and had to battle through this one to get the win.

“We’ve got to better be prepared for those type of things, but we really wanted this game where we would have to battle physically to just keep going and going and find a way to win. We needed to find a way to pull it out.”

OHSAA Week 8 football scores: High school football results for Greater Akron/Summit County

Glenville knocked Hoban down, the Knights responded with a knockout

D’Shawntae Jones (21 carries, 156 yards, TD, 67 yards passing) and Glenville gave the Knights their third deficit of the season, after Cathedral Prep led on two separate occasions in Week 2.

It came 5:10 into the game when Ohio State recruit Damarion Witten scored from 26 yards out and Jones converted a two-point conversion.

Elbert Hill responded with a 92-yard kickoff return and Brandon Feister scored the first of two touchdowns on a 20-yard pass from Tylan Boykin to give Hoban the lead back less than six minutes later.

“This game was pivotal,” Boykin said. “We needed somebody to punch us in the mouth where we would have to punch back. We needed to look into our playbook to see what we needed to do to get the win.

"A lot of the games this year haven’t been very close, but this is a tough team. This is what we look forward to. It’s what we condition for in practice. It’s playing four quarters until the last whistle. That’s where it starts.”

Hoban's defense showed flashes of brilliance when it was needed most

Where it finally ended was on yet another interception by Hill.

The Tarblooders held Hoban to 22 yards and no first downs in the first 13 minutes of the second half and went into the fourth quarter down 12.

On third-and-24 from its own 1, Glenville called a great play and Jones hit Donald Overby on a 67-yard streak.

The Tarblooders got to the Hoban 16 and looked like they were going to make a game of it when Hill outjumped Overby on the 4-yard line with 5:36 left.

“They’re probably the most aggressive defense we are going to see and that we have seen,” Ginn said. “You can’t take that away from them. If we could have stuck to our game plan, it’d been a game. We were doing something we really didn’t want to do.”

Hoban recovered two fumbles, had an interception and logged five sacks, and once again stepped up when it needed to.

“We’re a confident team,” Hoban linebacker Eli Lee said. “We don’t freak out on the sidelines. We adjust. There will be bad plays, but there’s just a calmness. We focus up.”

Playoff atmosphere will only help Knights in the future

And when the offense was needed, Caleb Jones (15 carries, 92 yards) and the Knights stepped up after Hill's interception.

The Knights drove 91 yards to the Glenville 4 and salted away the final 5:36.

“This was big for us,” Hill said. “We came out and tried to do our best. We made a couple mistakes but made up for them. We learned to execute, just kept playing hard and never gave up.”

Contact Brad Bournival at bbournival@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @bbournival

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Archbishop Hoban football battles to beat state champion Glenville