OSSIAN-The Courtyard was filled with much anticipation by many fans and media as the NE8 officially kicked off their conference schedule this evening. Leo and Norwell both came in undefeated on the season with the hopes of getting off to a fast start. From the opening kickoff, it was indeed a fast start……for the Leo Lions (literally). 

It took Leo just 2 minutes and 18 seconds for them to score the first points of the game thanks to a QB sneak from senior Jackson Barbour. From there, Leo never trailed or even come close to trailing. Just 2 minutes and 19 seconds later, Ethan Crawford found a huge hole down the middle and ran for a 64-yard touchdown run to make it 14-0. 

Leo would score another touchdown with 2:07 left in the quarter thanks to a 46-yard run from Ethan Crawford (2nd of the game by that point). At the end of the first quarter, Leo had 3 touchdown to Norwell’s 1 first down. 

The second quarter would show some improvements from Norwell’s passing game as Lleyton Bailey was starting to find some kind of rhythm. Yet, Leo’s defense continued to be strong, and their offense scored another touchdown just 1 minute and 11 seconds into the second quarter. Mason Sheron ran into the end zone on 4th and 1 to make it 28-0. Barbour found Sheron again with 3:19 left in the half to make it 34-0 (after a failed PAT). 

Norwell had a strong chance to score in the red zone, but Leo’s stingy defense kept them off the board. By this point, Leo’s starters still haven’t given up a touchdown and that would remain that way the rest of the night. 

Leo began to bring out their reserves, and the game was well out of reach. Ethan Crawford would get his third and final touchdown of the evening on a 33-yard run to make it 41-0 Leo, which led to the start of a running clock with 2:33 left in the 3Q. 

There was some good that came out of Norwell as the Knights were able to get on the board on a Jon Colbert run with 9:38 left in the game. That was the first Norwell touchdown against Leo in 3 years. But there was no doubt who was the winner in this one.

Norwell did have one final shot at getting another touchdown thanks in part to the play of Timothy Bonjour, but he was unable to cross the goal line before time expired. 

Ethan Crawford ended up with 148 yards and 3 TD’s. Mason Sheron had 81 yards and 2 TD’s (all on the ground). 

Leo improves to 3-0 and 1-0 in conference as they’ll host New Haven (who won tonight 13–10 in 2OT over  DeKalb). Norwell drops to 2-1 and 0-1 in conference as they’ll host winless Bellmont (who lost to Columbia City 62-35).