Mistakes costly to Fenton
Fenton will elect to use the 48-hour rule after Friday night.
The host Bison turned the ball over four times and gave up big play after big play in a 54-27 shellacking at the hands of Leo in their last nonconference game of the regular season.
“As soon as we walk into the building tonight my staff and I will watch film from tonight and we will start preparing for Ridgewood tomorrow,” Fenton coach Mark Kos said. “These kids will learn from their mistakes and we will move onto our conference season.”
The Bison had their hands full containing the speed of Leo all-state track star Theo Hopkins. The speedster torched the Fenton defense with a touchdown run of 47 yards in the first half and a 45-yard catch and run in the second half. Hopkins also added 1- and 8-yard TD runs.
Hopkins finished with a game-high 100 yards rushing on 11 carries and another 67 yards on 2 receptions.
“We knew they had speed going in, but we also broke down fundamentally tonight,” Koss added. “Their speed didn’t come as a surprise to us, but we also talked about not reaching and grabbing tonight.”
Fenton (3-2) had big plays of its own.
Quarterback Willie Wassman connected on a trio of long scoring plays to make the game respectable. Wassman hooked up with Alex Cowan for a 57-yard strike and scores to Zach Jakalski for 22 and 50 yards.
Cowan also added a 76-yard score on a kickoff return on a little trickery. Raul Garcia tossed a lateral pass to Cowan after Leo went ahead 26-13. The play caught the Lions off-guard and Cowan raced down the right sideline untouched.
“About the only thing we did right tonight was our special teams,” Kos said. “Everything else we were abysmal.”
The biggest Fenton turnover came in the final two minutes of the first half. Leading 13-12 with just under two minutes to play Wassman was picked off by Saloman Jones. The Lions senior returned the ball to the Bison 5, where Hopkins scored two plays later.
“That was huge,” Kos said of the costly interception. “Everything we did right to get to 3-1, we did wrong tonight.”
Leo (5-0) outscored the Bison 34-14 in the second half.
“Five and zero feels real good, but 6-0 will feel better,” Leo coach Michael Holmes said.
Quarterback Latrell Giles completed 14 of 29 passes for 242 yards and 3 TDs.