SYRACUSE — The Class 4A No. 5 Leo Lions answered a lot of skeptics with its 35-7 win in the opening round of Sectional 19 at Wawasee Friday night. Entering the game at 9-0, Leo’s strength of schedule, which ranked 173rd in the state, made it hard to tell just how good it really was, but after tallying 362 rushing yards against a Northern Lakes Conference team, it’s clear how good it is now. “They’re a good team,” Wawasee coach Josh Ekovich said. “They’re a good football team.” The significance of the win was not lost on Leo coach Jared Sauder, who now must prepare his team for Friday’s matchup against No. 9 East Noble, which defeated NorthWood 55-21 Friday. “It does a lot for our confidence,” Sauder said. “We know their conference is a tough one. It’s one of those things where you get off to a nice start and you enjoy it for a weekend.” One Leo player who may be trying to recover during the week is junior running back Logan Leiter. Only playing three-and-a-half quarters, the 5-foot-9, 174-pound running back ran the ball 33 times for 252 yards and three touchdowns. Despite his size, Leiter does benefit from some large friends up front. “First off, he has a really good offensive line in front of him,” Sauder said of Leiter. “He’ll be the first one to tell you that. They’re big and they’re physical. They get really good movement for him and he’s quick. He’s got really good vision. He sees things develop. He can see one thing and then go. He runs hard too. He might be a little small, but he’s a really good running back.” Leiter’s ability was put on display early. After forcing a three-and-out on Wawasee’s opening possession of the game, Leo began its first drive at its own 31-yard line. Eating 5:25 of the clock, Leiter ran the ball on six of Leo’s nine plays, going for 44 yards, the last being a 22-yard score. Wawasee responded to that drive, going 74 yards, highlighted by a 44-yard pass play from junior quarterback Gage Reinhard to senior Jordan Elliott to the Leo 4-yard line. Two plays later, Reinhard hit sophomore Sam Clark in the end zone and following senior Nate Prescott’s extra point, the score was knotted at 7-7 with 1:44 left in the first quarter. Those seven points were one more than the Leo defense has allowed on average per game this season. It appeared the Warriors may put some more points on the board in the second quarter, but an interception at the Leo 1-yard line ended the threat. With 99 yards in front of them and 4:13 left on the clock, the Lions didn’t alter their game plan, running the ball on all 14 plays. That strategy worked, as Leiter ran the ball on the first seven plays, getting to the Wawasee 40. Senior Logan Wood spelled Leiter for a couple plays, picking up 11 yards on two-straight runs, before Leiter came back re-entered the game. With the ball at the Wawasee 29, Leiter needed five more carries before he crossed the goal line with only 19 ticks left in the half, giving his team a 14-7 lead. “They’re big,” Ekovich said of Leo’s offensive line. “They’re strong. They took advantage of some holes we had – some personnel and some schematic. It’s hard to cover everything when they’re man blocking across the board. It was one of those drives that kind of takes the wind out of your sails. “Obviously that was a huge turning point,” Sauder said. “I can’t say enough about our offensive line in the drive right before the half. They did a great job.” The turning point hadn’t quite come yet. Looking to run out the clock on the half, Wawasee attempted to run the ball outside, but fumbled in the process, and Wood picked it up and ran 38 yards for a touchdown, increasing Leo’s lead to 21-7 with two seconds remaining. “To come out and throw the flare and fumble it for a touchdown, that was just the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Ekovich said. “We didn’t recover from that.” The air had been sucked out the stadium following the quick turnaround before the half, and Ekovich had to try to fire the guys back up in the locker room. “As soon as we got into the locker room (the guys were down),” he said. “We changed up some schematics and I felt like the kids were ready to come out for the second half.” If they were ready, it wasn’t for long as Leo needed just five plays to go 63 yards, ending with a 14-yard touchdown run by Leiter, increasing the lead to 28-7. Forcing a turnover on downs on Wawasee’s next possession, Leo’s final scoring drive went 73 yards, ending with a 1-yard run by Wood with 2:00 remaining in the third quarter. From there, Leo began to empty its bench, but never went to the air, as the Lions only throw the ball on three of its 64 offensive plays. “Give it to them,” Ekovich said. “They played hard, they played with passion, they played with intensity and they controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. That’s what won the game tonight.”
LEO 35, WAWASEE 7 L 7 14 14 0 — 35 W 7 0 0 0 — 7
L W 1st downs 22 12 Rushing yds 362 89 Passing yds 13 163 Comp-Att-Int 1-3-1 14-26-1 Total yds 375 252 Fumbles/lost 3/1 1/1 Penalties/yds 9/92 2/20 Punts/avg 2/23 2/34
First Quarter L – Logan Leiter 22 run (Zach Ferran kick) 5:35, 7-0 W – Gage Reinhard 4 pass to Sam Clark (Nate Prescott kick) 1:44, 7-7 Second Quarter L – Leiter 5 run (Ferran kick) 0:19, 14-7 L – Logan Wood 38 fumble recovery (Ferran kick) 0:02, 21-7 Third Quarter L – Leiter 14 run (Ferran kick) 10:14, 28-7 L – Wood 1 run (Ferran kick) 2:00, 35-7
