Archbishop Hoban keeps its focus in win over Walsh Jesuit
AKRON, Ohio - Archbishop Hoban players weren't allowed to talk in school on Friday, but they did their talking on the field Friday night with a 57-7 win over Walsh Jesuit.
Hoban, who was celebrating its annual Mum Day tradition during school hours in which students are to remain quiet all day, scored 37 points in the opening quarter to run away from their rival.
The Hoban offense started with a trick play, with quarterback Tylan "Juice" Boykin flipping it to wide receiver Payton Cook, who fired downfield for a 52-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Hightower.
“We came out and we wanted to put our athletes in space and give them chances to make plays,” Hoban head coach Tim Tyrrell said. “We did that, starting with the second play. (We have been) setting it up well over the last few weeks, doing that play over and over again. We know it was a good opportunity for our kids to kind of display what they have athletically.”
Boykin then found Joey Hardman for a 35-yard touchdown pass and the Hoban defense went on a scoring spurt of its own.
On the ensuing Walsh possession, Tysen Campbell went up with one hand and pulled in an interception that he took 50 yards for a score.
“I just went up (and) I couldn't get two hands so I had to grab it with one and then you know, we score,” Campbell said.
It was reminiscent of a play teammate Elbert "Rock" Hill made a few weeks ago in a win over Trinity Episcopal (Virginia).
“If I score, he scores,” Campbell joked. “Oh yeah, for sure (we talked about that play). We congratulate our guys.”
The next possession for Walsh ended with a safety as Eli Lee tackled quarterback Keller Moten in the end zone to make it 23-0.
Rushing scores from two yards out by Caleb Jones and 42 yards by Hill finished the scoring in the first quarter.
Jones then scored from 12 yards out and six yards to make it 50-0 at halftime.
Deon Rodgers scored a 15-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to end the scoring for Hoban, while Carlos Smith scored for Walsh on the final offensive play of the game.
Archbishop Hoban's Tylan Boykin (No. 10) and Payton Cook (No. 0) celebrate a play against Akron East on Saturday, September 9, 2023. (Photo by Jeff Harwell)
Hoban had pitched back-to-back shutouts against Akron East and St. Ignatius and it was the second time in four games that the only score given up came on the last play of the game with the outcome well in hand.
“(The defense) just keeps trying to get better,” Tyrrell said. “There’s little things. They’re trying to fix things and do things consistently, they're never satisfied. We knew way back in June that this was going to be the unit that had to constantly play like that.”
Hoban (6-0) came into the game ranked No. 4 in the latest SBLive Ohio Power 25, while Walsh Jesuit was ranked No. 6 and suffered its first loss of the season.
Walsh was without starting running back/linebacker Brock Sherman, who is week-to-week with an injury suffered in last week's win over St. Vincent-St. Mary.
Despite getting out to a 37-0 lead early, Tyrrell was happy with how his team handled the adversity that comes when it feels like everything is going right.
“We've been talking a lot about adversity on both ends,” Tyrrell said. “We talked during chapel our talk today that adversity hits when you're winning and losing. So I didn't think at one point we were ever going to give up and start playing slow. But we kept preaching and preaching and preaching and I think our kids lived it for the first time in a while. That's hard to do when you're up big fast and things click really fast. It doesn't always happen like that. So I'm proud of our kids that they handled that side of adversity because it's not just always bad things and stuff and good things go right there's adversity too.”
One of the reasons Tyrrell thought the Knights were able to keep their focus was because of the special guest that visited the team after practice one day this past week – former Cleveland Browns Pro Bowler Josh Cribbs.
“We had an All Pro stop at practice the other day,” Tyrrell said. “And (he gave) a talk to our team about those types of things, just playing for the love of the game and playing for the brotherhood of football and wanting to be able to sit back one day, 20 years from now and tell stories from this game.”
