TURNER — Many around the state of Maine had Saturday night’s Wells-Leavitt matchup circled on their calendars since the day the schedules came out this summer.
Both teams entered undefeated, with Wells carrying its 33-game winning streak into Turner and the game lived up to the hype.
On the back of a strong second half from Leavitt quarterback Wyatt Hathaway, receiver Damion Calder, as well as a dominating defensive performance spearheaded by Cam Jordan, the Hornets were able to take the 22-8 victory over Wells.
“We talked all week about executing what we put in,” Wyatt Hathaway said. “Hitting the short passes underneath, our guards, we knew we could trap their ends and it just feels awesome. We did what we needed, executed, and it feels good to come out with a win.”
Leavitt (6-0) knew that Wells (5-1) had what many would call the best running back in the state in Payton MacKay in its backfield, so in the first half the Hornets ran a clinic on stopping the run.
Leavitt held MacKay to just 41 yards in the first half, stalling the Wells offense often.
MacKay and Jordan were both wreaking havoc on each side of the ball for their respective teams.
Jordan earned a sack, a tackle for loss, a couple of pass deflections and plenty of hurries in the backfield in the first half. He seemed to be in the midst of every play for the Hornets. Last year’s season fuels Jordan on every play.
“Just the dedication from losing last year and knowing that this is the second-best team in the state almost,” Jordan said. “But we just grinded all week and (head coach Mike Hathaway) told us during halftime to just refuel the tanks because we still have two quarters.”
In the second quarter, with the score still 0-0, Hathaway threw his first interception of the game to Wells’ Brian Roberts. Leavitt then stopped Wells on fourth down on the ensuing drive as Jordan swatted the pass down.
On Leavitt’s next drive, Hathaway found Jordan for a 45-yard pass in which Jordan broke multiple tackles to set up the first score of the game, when Hathaway ran it in from five yards out.
The two-point conversion was good and Leavitt held an 8-0 lead.
“Cam brings everything,” Mike Hathaway said. “Cam’s not just one of the best defensive players in the state, he’s one of the best players in the state. If people haven’t seen him play they’re missing out because he’s special off the edge defensively, he’s blocked five punts, he ran the ball and caught the ball well tonight and was on the field for almost every snap. He just brings a lot of heart. When you get in a backyard fight, that’s the dude you want standing next to you, for sure.”
Leavitt received the ball first in the third quarter and on its second play Hathaway found Calder on a wheel route for a 74- yard touchdown down the right sideline. Another two-point conversion was successful and Leavitt had a 16-0 lead and all the momentum.
“We thought we would get that coming out of halftime,” Mike Hathaway said. “…Wyatt did a good job putting it on him and Damion has good wheels so it was a good way to start the half.”
“We knew we had a little play where we had a fade and an out, and the safety jumped the out on the last one and let the corner have the fade, so we knew once he jumped that we would have the wheel up the field and we would have the touchdown,” Wyatt Hathaway said. “Damion ran an awesome route and the line gave me time.”
Calder earned 117 of his 139 yards in the second half, some on the ground but mostly from the arm of Hathaway.
Wells showed a much more aggressive approach to offense on its first drive, which it kept up for the second half.
“We got in a little power set and said, ‘We’re going to run it down their throats,’” Wells coach Tim Roche said. “I thought we did a good job. We said, ‘We are going to go man to man and get physical.’ We should’ve done it earlier.”
MacKay earned 53 yards in the second half.
On Wells’ first possession of the second half, the Warriors gave the Hornets’ defense a steady dose of MacKay and running back Matt Tufts on a 51-yard drive. It was capped off by an 8-yard touchdown run from MacKay that started off as a toss to the left, but ended with the playmaker breaking out of a tackle and reversing field to score around the pylon on the right side of the end zone to make it 16-8.
Leavitt answered with an 80-yard drive that ended with a four-yard touchdown run by Garrett Jabbusch to go up 22-8 with 1:22 left in the third. The run was set up by four consecutive completions from Hathaway that totaled 65 yards.
“Garrett was huge,” Wyatt Hathaway said. “When both your tails go out and you’re playing against the best team you’ll play all year, he stepped up and did what he needed to do.”
The final outcome was set when, on Wells’ next drive, MacKay slipped and fell in the backfield on a fourth-and-two run from Leavitt’s 8-yard line, giving the Hornets’ flowing offense the ball with under 10 minutes left in the game.
“He slips on the fourth-and-two and I thought he would’ve had it,” Roche said. “We made a couple of errors early, but if they had kicked our butts all over the place I would’ve been like, ‘Uh-oh.’ They’re a good football team, don’t take anything away from them.”
Wells’ winning streak was ended, but Roche was not focused on that after the game.
“We gotta step up now,” Roche said. “This was never about any winning streak, everyone else made up the winning streak. That’s not what Warriors football is about. I think people played it up this week to kind of motivate a bit more and I’m fine. We haven’t talked about it since it started. We don’t celebrate many wins in October and September, we celebrate wins in November.”
Leavitt faces Cape Elizabeth next week while Wells has a battle against Fryeburg Academy.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
