100th
Meeting
Between Rivals
    This Thursday marks a historical day in ITCL football.  Not ony is it the first day of the regular season, but it will also be host to the 100th meeting between old rivals in Leetonia and Lisbon.  "I believe, believe it's the oldest continious rivalry in Columbiana County," Bears head coach Matt Altomare would remark.  "I know East Liverpool and Salem have played a lot, but I don't know that it has been continious through the years."  The Lisbon-Leetonia series has had a couple breaks over the years with a two-year suspension 1917-1918 due to war, and a break in the 1930's due to an outbreak of flu.
     The series between these two rivals could compare to some of the greats in college football such as Michigan-Ohio State, and Army-Navy.  Through 100 clashes, the Blue Devils hold a very slight 49 to 47 wins advantage, with there being three ties in the course of the series.
     Of course there are no livving players from the first games. Asked if they tried to bring any original players back for this game Lisbon head coach Jeremy McElroy exclaimed, "I hope not!"  If you think about it, the first game (played in 1905) was before World War I, TV, radio, computers, and yes even cell phones. In fact, in 1905 there were only 45 states in our country, and Teddy Roosevelt was the President.  Fans of both the Bears and Devils were treated to an exciting 0-0 tie in that first game.
    Many from around the area simply know this game as the "Spaghetti Bowl".  From all accounts the naming of this game came from back in the mid 1970's when Lisbon Superintendant, and Leetonia graduate Joe Drischol tried to add a little excitement to the rivalry.  "He purchased a trophy which was a serving bowl with a football player in the center to be awarded to the winning team," recalled long time Bears coach Artie Altomare. "It started out that the losing team's coaches had to serve a spaghetti dinner to the winning team," said Matt Altomare. "But about the mid 1990 it just got to be to much of a hassle for the coaching staff.  Especially with all the demands in the regular season." Artie added, "There was some talk a few years ago about renewing that tradition, but nothing really came of it."
    Artie should know a lot about this rivalry as he was the head coach at Leetonia for 28 years.  When asked how he fared against the Blue Devils he said, "It was pretty even. There were a lot of close, hard fought defensive games in there."  He did recall one special one, "It was my third year as coach, Lisbon had won a few in a row, and we won on a game ending field goal by Ron Drischol.  That was pretty special." He also pointed out that there were a number of great coaches that have participated in the series including Jim Tsilimos, and Mike Pavlansky who now coaches at Canfield.
     As far as the 2010 version of this classic, both squads are fired up and ready to start playing for real.  "I feel good about this team as a group, and they are eager to get started," McElroy would state.  "The kids look forward to it after three weeks of hard practice," Altomare remarked about the game.  Unfortunately the series no longer takes place in October, like the old TCL days, when league championships and playoffs were sometimes on the line.  However, it is still something that both Lisbon and Leetonia look forward to every year.  "We have a lot of respect for Leetonia.  They are like us, a small community that is very proud of their football," McElroy commented.
    Despite the misfortune of the Devils the past couple of years, Altomare knows they will see the best out of the Devils come Friday night.  "We saw them on film from scrimmages.  They are a much improved team.  They want to get that monkey off their back as soon as possible.  They will be fired up for us," Altomare explained.  No doubt, the 100th edition of this rivarly will be another classic in this storied match-up.