CAPE ELIZABETH — Leavitt High entered Friday night’s Class C South football game with Cape Elizabeth minus its top two tailbacks with injuries, then lost its third tailback to an injury early in the game.
And yet the Hornets remained unbeaten, relying on a balanced offense and a explosive defense to turn back the Capers 30-12 at Hannaford Field. Leavitt intercepted five passes, three by junior Wyatt Hathaway.
His last one was returned 95 yards for the touchdown that clinched top-ranked Leavitt’s seventh win of the season without a loss. Cape Elizabeth dropped to 4-3.
“There’s a lot of resiliency with this group,” said Leavitt Coach Mike Hathaway. “A lot of guys with a lot of heart and a lot of love. When you can fall back on that. It means a lot. So when the going gets tough, our guys aren’t going to back down from a challenge and they’re not going to see anything they don’t think they can handle.”
Leavitt led 22-6 at the half, scoring three on three short runs, the first by Mark Herman from the 1, the next two by Camden Jordan, from 1 and 2 yards.
Then things got interesting. Wyatt Hathaway, also Leavitt’s quarterback, was intercepted three times in the second half, the last one finally leading to a Cape Elizabeth touchdown, a 1-yard pass from Gannon Stewart to Andrew Conley.
But Wyatt Hathaway intercepted the conversion pass to keep it 22-12. “That was huge,” said Mike Hathaway.
Cape’s Nick Laughlin then recovered a pooch kick at Leavitt’s 25. After Matt Laughlin gained 6 yards on first down, Stewart threw over the middle only to have Wyatt Hathaway step in front of the pass at the 5. He broke to his right.
“I was lucky enough that it was right in my chest,” said Wyatt Hathaway. “Riley Parmenter and Damion Calder had two really good blocks ahead of me and I’m sure everyone was blocking for me.”
Well, no one touched him. He went 95 yards down the right sideline, and following the conversion rush by Jordan, Leavitt led 30-12 with 6:17 remaining.
“It’s about us,” said Cape Coach Sean Green. “When we don’t execute, we’re not going to win the game. Five turnovers tonight, it’s not going to get it done against the best team in our conference.”
Still, this was a great effort by the Capers, who have struggled at times defensively this year, but did a good job stopping Leavitt’s potent game. The turnovers were simply too much to overcome.
“In my opinion we’ve yet to put a full four quarters of football together,” said Green. “When we do that, I think we’re a dangerous football team.”
Leavitt was able to overcome its mistakes with the ball-control offense. Wyatt Hathaway gained 70 yards rushing (and threw for 102) and Calder had 55 and Jordan 49, getting many of the tough inside yards.
“We had to roll through a couple of guys,” said Jordan.”They put the load on me a little. But everyone had a great game.
“And Wyatt made a couple of big plays in the clutch and we came up with the win.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
