TURNER — Mountain Valley might consider rounding up Gray-New Gloucester, Poland and Lake Region and starting a support group. Because collectively, for the past month, those four football programs ran into Leavitt and paid for Belfast’s sins.
The Hornets were unceremoniously, unexpectedly eliminated from the 2012 regional playoffs — in a different conference, mind you — and they are determined never to let another underdog get a sniff of such lofty air at Libby Field.
Leavitt mauled Mountain Valley, 61-0, on Friday night. It’s the third straight game in which the Hornets have scored nine touchdowns and cleared the 60-point threshold. With 609 total yards, they also topped that milestone for the second straight week.
Extend the sample to four weeks of Western Class C competition and you get a combined score of 236-0. Leavitt (6-0) hasn’t allowed a touchdown in more than 18 quarters, a streak that dates back to the first half of a 14-7 victory in a monsoon at Yarmouth.
Overlook anybody? Please.
“We’ve got one thing in mind and that’s redemption,” said senior running back and defensive back Nate Rousseau, one of seven different Hornets to reach the end zone against the Falcons. “We’ve got a lot to prove to everyone, especially ourselves.”
Senior tailback Conor O’Malley and sophomore backup quarterback Billy Bedard each rushed for two touchdowns. Bedard led the way with 117 of Leavitt’s 479 yards.
Nate Coombs and Julian Kirouac joined Rousseau with TDs on the ground. Tyler Chicoine (10-for-15, 130 yards) connected with Sam Green and Mitchel Davis for first-half scores.
Adam Poulin and Levi Morin picked off passes while Will Parkin, Scott Sleeper and Coombs led a smothering defense that limited Mountain Valley (1-5) to 52 net yards and three first downs.
“We’ve been working really hard on tackling and just running to the ball. More or less just flocking,” Parkin said. “We’ve been shutting people down, putting up zeroes this whole time. We’re trying to keep that momentum, not letting up.”
There was a feeling-out process for Leavitt in this reunion with its estranged rival. Mountain Valley shut out Leavitt in the 2010 Class B state championship, but the schools hadn’t played a regular-season game in a decade.
Three of the Falcons’ first five drives reached Hornets territory before ending in a punt and the Poulin and Morin picks.
A rare punt and a lost fumble also slowed Leavitt’s progress, but a 38-yard jaunt by O’Malley and a 47-yard Bedard ramble made it 14-0 after one quarter.
“They didn’t play any defense that they had shown on film, so our kids did a good job adjusting,” Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway said. “You can see on film that’s a young team, but they’re coached well. They come off the ball. They play hard. They’re doing things right. They’re just a little overmatched right now.”
Morin’s interception led to a 9-yard scoring run by Coombs. Kirouac later went 27 yards on his first carry of the night to set up the Chicoine-to-Green TD strike from 6 yards out.
Two straight connections from Chicoine to Coombs opened up a 19-yard slant to Davis, who was wearing freshman Alex Gilbert’s jersey after his own top fell victim to the blood rule.
Leavitt also drove from its own 25 to the Mountain Valley 15 in the final 1:16 before time ran out in the half.
“That’s why they call it the spread offense, when you have that many kids you can spread the ball around to,” said Hathaway, who fed the ball to a dozen different backs and five receivers.
O’Malley and Rousseau ran it in from 6 and 12 yards, respectively, in the third quarter. Kirouac and Bedard padded the lead in the fourth.
Leavitt held the Mountain Valley trio of Tom Thibeau, Josh Mason and Kyle Farrar to 36 yards on 32 carries.
“We knew they were a tough team that we needed to take seriously,” Parkin said. “We just had to establish our dominance early and often.”
koakes@sunjournal.com
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