A 47-point win, while satisfying, can’t totally undo the gloom of an 0-5 start to a season, but the Leo Lions were happy to claim a 47-0 victory over Noble Academy on Saturday, Oct. 5 at St. Rita’s Cronin Field.
Leo celebrated Homecoming with its first win of the season, and for a time there was concern that the game wouldn’t be played.
De La Salle was Leo’s scheduled Homecoming opponent, but a situation involving numbers has been an issue at ‘D’ for the last two years— the Meteors fielded only one team last season, and fewer than 30 prospective players turned out for the start of workouts this year.
When injuries further thinned the roster during an 0-3 start, school officials decided to cancel the rest of the season out of concern for the remaining players’ safety. That left Leo scrambling for a Homecoming opponent, and Noble Academy, a member of the Noble Street Charter Network located in the Near North Old Town neighborhood, agreed to fill in.
The game was the centerpiece of a festive Homecoming weekend, preceded by a pep rally that wrapped up five days of Spirit Week activities and followed by a dance in the school auditorium. And it was a day to remember for senior CJ Cunningham, whose three touches produced three touchdowns: on a 35-yard pass reception, a 46-yard punt return and an 88-yard kickoff return.
Marshawn Durr completed the three passes he threw, for 72 yards and two touchdowns, to Cunningham and sophomore Antonio Clark good for nine yards. Javon Logan (34 yards) and Derrick Davis (5 yards) had touchdown runs, and Jaivon Dale recovered a blocked punt in the end zone as the Lions exceeded their scoring output from the previous four games.
Points had been hard to come by in losses to Genoa Kingston (41-22), Amundsen (13-12), St. Pat’s (17-6), Marian Catholic (39-18) and St. Laurence (42-0). And there’s minimal relief in sight over the final three weeks with St. Rita (4-2), Notre Dame (2-4) and Marmion (4-2) remaining on the schedule.
On the bright side, Logan has averaged better than six yards per carry while running for nearly 500 yards and two-way lineman Nick Armour has been a force on both sides of the ball, each player establishing himself as a college prospect.
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