By Dan McGrath

Not even an all-time great from Leo’s illustrious past could help the Lions in their Catholic League/East Suburban Catholic crossover game with St. Rita on a gorgeous night for football at St. Rita’s Cronin Field.

Jay Standring ’66, who won an alphabet’s worth of letters at Leo before moving on to play football at Notre Dame, is a longtime (and revered) teacher/coach at St. Rita after filling those roles for several years at Leo.

Acknowledging his ties to both schools, St. Rita appointed Jay an honorary captain for the game. He officiated at the coin toss, and the Lions might have known they were in for trouble when they called heads and it came up tails.

The Mustangs (5-2, 1-1 CCL/ESCC Green), looking very much the part of a state playoff contender, scored on six of their seven possessions and bullied the Lions with a fast, physical defense in pitching a 42-0 shutout.

And they did it without their primary offensive weapon – senior running back Nick Herman sat out the game after taking a pounding in the previous week’s loss to Nazareth. Junior quarterback Steven Armbruster and sophomore wideout Donovan Evans more than made up for Herman’s absence.

Armbruster had a hand in four St. Rita touchdowns, running for 2- and 6-yard scores and throwing TD passes of 59 yards to Evans and 48 yards to Walter Jones. Evans also hauled in a 22-yard TD pass from backup QB Tommy Perry.

Leo (1-6, 0-1 CCL/ESCC Red) lost a fumble, threw two interceptions and was assessed 90 yards in penalties. That was a recipe for disaster against the most talented team the Lions have faced this year – a running clock was in effect from the opening minutes of the fourth quarter.

They also lost quarterback Derrick Davis to a rib injury from a devastating but clean hit shortly before halftime, after Davis’ 75 yards on 12 scrambles was pretty much the extent of Leo’s first-half offense.

Marshawn Durr took over and was an energetic presence, running for 46 yards and passing for 50. But the Lions’ final possession was a capsule summary of a night on which nothing went their way.

Durr connected with Neil Anderson on a 32-yard pass play and picked up 31 yards on three runs, giving Leo first-and-goal at St. Rita’s 2-yard line. A sweep lost a yard, a swing pass lost two yards and another sweep went nowhere. The Lions finally tried the middle on fourth-and-goal from the 5, but the play was stacked up and Leo was shut out for the second time in three weeks.

The frosh-soph didn’t fare much better, losing 26-6 in the preliminary game to fall to 3-4 for the season. Kam Mosley scored Leo’s touchdown, his 13th this season.

A trip to Niles and a date with Notre Dame (2-5) is next for the Lions on Friday, Oct 18. The season ends with a 1 p.m. Senior Day home game against Marmion (4-3) on Saturday, Oct. 26.

The schedule:
Fri., Oct. 18 – at Notre Dame of Niles, 7 p.m.
Sat., Oct. 26 – Marmion, 1 p.m.*

* home games at St. Rita’s Cronin Field, 78th and Western