Leavitt quarterback Levi Craig runs between Ethan Murphy, left, and Noah Wolfinger of Cape Elizabeth during the first half in Turner in September 2014.
The Leavitt Hornets have disarmed a number of land mines on return to Class C and their journey back to favored status.
They opened the season with a comeback win at York, always a difficult road game. After putting up a mind-blowing 73 points in a shutout of Belfast, they relied on defense and opportunistic offense in narrow wins over Gardiner and Fryeburg Academy, two teams expected to battle with them for C South supremacy.
They follow up their second shutout, a 44-0 rout at Yarmouth, with a big home game against another C South contender, Cape Elizabeth.
The Capers, who are coming off a rout of their own (61-6 over Gray-New Gloucester), bring a 4-1 record to Libby Field. But you wouldn’t know it from the Heal point standings, where they are ranked sixth, behind other 4-1 squads such as Fryeburg, Lake Region and Morse, but also trailing 1-4 Gardiner. The Capers could use the Heal points a win over the Hornets would bring, not to mention a confidence boost heading into a matchup with Fryeburg next week.
For all the Heal points the Capers are currently lacking, the same can not be said for their scoring output. They trail only the Hornets with 172 points (34.4 ppg) in C South scoring.
Senior running back Jack Glanville and fullback Ryan Weare power the Capers. Glanville is more of an outside, speed threat, while Weare does most of his damage between the tackles. The Capers will run them out of Wing T and spread formations and aren’t afraid to have junior QB Andrew Hartel throw the ball downfield when teams try to load up to stop the run.
Leavitt has the size and speed to load up in short-yardage situations, as it showed with four red zone stops last week at Yarmouth. Brothers Aidan and Riley Parmenter will be keys to stopping Glanville and Weare from running downhill.
Seniors Tim Albert (QB), Bryce Hudson (running back) and Caleb Bowen (slot) highlight Leavitt’s conference-leading offense (41.6 ppg). The Hornets rushed for 295 yards on just 22 carries last week behind a big, physical offensive line led by the Parmenters and Nolan Cabral.
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