27-0 victory is Norwell’s first over Leo since the 2014 season
By RYAN WALKER
The Norwell Knights opened up conference play with a rout over Leo 27-0 Friday night, their first win over the Lions since 2014.
Last season, Leo won 41-7 in a blowout, capturing a Northeast 8 conference title, with Norwell finishing second with one regular-season loss.
Friday night, the Knights erased all 41 points from last season, picking up their second straight shutout of the 2022 season.
“It’s a good team,” Norwell head coach Josh Gerber said. “You get a shutout against a good team, it’s a really good feeling. The last couple years, they’ve been kind of the monkey on our back, and we haven’t been able to get past those guys.”
The first quarter began with a boom with a 32-yard interception from Drew Ringger to the Lions’ 18-yard line. Five plays later, Lleyton Bailey punched it in on a quarterback keeper for six yards.
As time was winding down in the first, Leo’s quarterback Kyler Decker couldn’t handle the snap, rushing backward and falling on the loose ball and losing 21 yards. After a punt, Norwell’s Drew Graft threw his only pass of the night to Cohen Bailey for 25 yards, setting up a 1-yard TD for Graft to make it 14-0.
Leo took the ball back on the kickoff and moved the chains for the first time all game on a 10-yard pass from Decker to Kamden Zeisloft. The Lions faced third down and nine but a pass attempt was foiled when Luke Graft knifed through the offensive line for a six-yard sack. That forced another Leo punt.
Norwell’s defense was stellar, as the Lions had minus-26 yards of total offense in the first half and four punts
“We felt like we had a really good game plan going into it, and they executed it to a ‘T’,” Gerber said. “There were some routes we wanted to settle, and they did it. We wanted to attack things in certain ways, and the guys did exactly what we asked them to do. I’m so proud of those guys.”
On the next drive, Gerber’s Knights picked up four first downs and finished it off with a six-yard touchdown run from Luke Graft, who got the ball back on his sack in the first place. Graft had seven carries on the drive for 40 yards.
Going into halftime, it was 21-0, advantage Norwell.
Leo began the half much better than the first, grabbing two first downs through the air. Five minutes passed on the clock on the possession, and the Lions had it fourth and five at the 17. Decker dropped back to pass, trying to fit one through the defense, but fell incomplete, turning the ball over to Norwell on downs.
Both teams couldn’t get the ball moving after that. But at the 1:57 mark, Norwell snatched its third interception of the night. Ringger had this one again, returning it for 21 yards. A first-down penalty followed by a three-yard touchdown from Luke Graft gave the Knights a 27-0 lead, missing on a fake extra point attempt.
More of the same happened in the fourth quarter, as the pass-heavy Lions wound down and ran the ball in 10 of their 11 plays. The one pass was intercepted by Kline Neuenschwander near the goal-line.
Following the interception, Neuenschwander was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, which was one of many penalties from the Knights, the only downside of the night. Their 10 flags went for 110 yards, and Gerber says his team needs to work on that before it’s too late.
“We have to clean that up every week,” Gerber said. “Against someone that may get us, we’ve got to clean that up. We’ve got to clean up those silly penalties. It’s something we focus and work on, and they were effort penalties for the most part. A couple of ones were foolish, and we were frustrated with like some miscommunication.”
Norwell went to victory formation with more than a minute left, completing the shutout 27-0. Norwell is now 1-0 in the Northeast 8.
NORWELL 27, LEO 0
At LEO
Score By Quarters
Norwell 7 14 6 0 – 27
Leo 0 0 0 0 – 0
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
N—Lleyton Bailey 6-yard run (DeLeon kick), 6:36
Second Quarter
N—Drew Graft 1-yard run (DeLeon kick) 11:12
N—Luke Graft 6-yard run (DeLeon kick), 2:18
Third Quarter
N—Luke Graft 3-yard run (2-pt no good), 1:57
Fourth Quarter
No scoring.
Team Statistics
NOR LEO
First Downs 9 9
Rushes-Yards 34-136 26-28
Yards Passing 70 79
Passing (Comp-Att-Int) 6-13-0 9-26-4
Penalties-Yards 10-115 4-45
Fumbles-Lost 3-2 4-1
Punts-Average 3-46 5-26
Time of Possession 20:29 19:24
Individual Statistics
Rushing: Norwell, Luke Graft 18-73, Drew Graft 3-46, Lleyton Bailey 4-11, Timothy Bonjour 1-4, Aydan Rusu 1-4, John Colbert 1-2. Leo, Aidan Monds 6-38 Max Leffler 13-23, Brett Fuller 3-9, Kamden Zeisloft 1-4, Kyler Decker 2-(-21)
Passing: Norwell, Lleyton Bailey 5-9-0- 45 Drew Graft 1-1-0 25 Leo, Kyler Decker 9-26-4-79
Receiving: Norwell, John Colbert 2-20, Kline Neuenschwander 1-14, Aydan Rusu 1-9, Trey Boden 1-2. Leo, Brock Schott 4-45, Jaxon Keller 3-30, Landin Hoeppner 2-8, Kamden Zeisloft 2-2
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