By Dan McGrath

After the Leo Lions got off to a 2-0 start this football season, it was a natural reaction to examine the schedule in search of three more wins that would facilitate an IHSA playoff berth for the first time since 2013.

Friday’s Marian Catholic game was one of those three potential W’s, for various reasons. The Spartans were 0-3 coming in. It was Leo’s Homecoming. There’s a feel-good vibe throughout the school owing to the world-renowned Leo Choir’s electrifying presence on a national stage. A raucous pep rally sent the Lions off to St. Xavier for the game, and a large, revved-up crowd awaited them there.

It surely looked to be Leo’s night when Jaivon Dale brought the opening kickoff back 87 yards for a touchdown. Ellison Cox ran for the conversion, and the Lions had an 8-0 lead mere seconds into the game.

But the rest of the night belonged to the visitors  – emphatically, resulting in a 35-14 drubbing. Marian needed just five plays to match Dale’s touchdown, quarterback Owen Askren finding wideout Ian Parker for a 42-yard score.

Leo promptly fumbled the ball away, the first of its three turnovers, and the Spartans went 44 yards in six plays, Kyle Scott getting in from five yards out to give Marian a lead it would never relinquish.

Scott piled up 188 yards on 27 carries and scored three times, while Askren accumulated 186 yards through the air, passing for one score and running for another.

So dominant were the Spartans on offense that they did not punt once. They shrugged off 75 yards in penalties and had two touchdowns called back or it might have been worse.

Leo’s first-year Coach Theo Hopkins was uncharacteristically gloomy after the Lions dropped their CCL/ESCC Red Division opener and fell to 2-2 overall.

“You can’t win if you don’t compete, and we did not compete,” Hopkins said. “We didn’t block, we didn’t tackle and we didn’t compete. Very disappointing.”

Leo’s glaring inability to run the ball is not only undermining its season, it’s placing an unrealistic burden on and jeopardizing the health of sophomore quarterback Trent Watson. Running for his life against a pass rush that encountered little resistance, Watson still completed 12 of 21 passes for 167 yards and a 26-yard touchdown to Antonio Clark. The Spartans dropped him three times for 38 yards in losses, all but negating the 56 yards he picked up on seven scrambles. Derrick Davis, on a brief hiatus from the Choir, caught five passes for 96 yards.

Hopkins promised to put the Lions through a tough, focused week of practice in preparation for next Saturday’s CCL-ESCC crossover game with St. Laurence at St. Xavier (4:30 pm kickoff). The Vikings are 3-1 after Friday’s 21-14 loss to Carmel of Mundelein.