East lost the game to Girard, but the Golden Bears won the hearts of not only the people in the city but of those in the suburbs, too. East High was the feel-good high school football story of 2018 that brought a lot of people together.

“They made me cry, they made me laugh,” Lakeshia Boykin said.

Boykin has been the East High team mom for four years. Her son is safety Marcus Finkley.

“This is the time that we got love. No negative stuff. We just got love, mad love,” Boykin said.

But during two a days in August — no one was showing East any love.

“We was projected to 3-7,” Finkley said.

Safety Marcus Finkley says the Golden Bears started changing minds after the week two win over Ursuline.

“Probably that same night I probably got so much compliments from teams such as Fitch and Boardman and stuff like that because the win was so big,” Finkley said.

“I always told them that if you guys do that and win, everything would take care of itself,” said head coach Brian Marrow.

And East — under head coach Marrow — pulled off upset win — after upset win.

“The wins were like big wins against Poland and Canfield, the games that we weren’t supposed to win,” Finkley said.

“And then after that Canfield game, I had 72 texts on my phone. I couldn’t believe it,” Marrow said.

Another upset win over Hubbard in week 10 put East in the playoffs with a 7 and 3 record. They played Girard in the first round and lost. But there were 7,000 people at Stambaugh Stadium. Coach Marrow’s wife was in the presidential suite.

“White and black just cheering for East. You know it was just unbelievable. She mentioned that to me,” Marrow said.

“It brought life to everybody. It brought life into the community and it just gave everybody something to look forward to,” said Christopher Fitzgerald, East High lineman.

“We’re not where we want to be, but we sure aren’t where we used to be,” said Jeremy Batchelor, East High’s principal.

This is Batchelor’s first year as East High’s principal. He says the culture at East High has changed the past two years due in part to the success of the football team.

“This team really embraced that need for change, and they embraced that we want to go out and get it on the football field, but also in the classroom and in the hallways,” Batchelor said.

Next year, both East and Chaney will have football teams, which will change the whole dynamics of football in Youngstown.

Some who played for East this year will play for Chaney next year. It will also create a natural rivalry — the East-Chaney game should be a good one.