WELLS — The defending Class C champs from Leavitt Area High School had way too many effective options, and Wells had no significant answer.
The Hornets, who had their first two games canceled because of their opponents’ COVID-19 issues, finally got on a field for a real game and dominated from start to finish Friday, rolling to a 41-0 Class C South football victory, scoring three touchdowns in each half.
The Hornets’ diverse offense, led by senior quarterback Hunter Hayes in his first career start, rolled up 587 total yards of offense.
“Kind of our philosophy is there’s no one guy, everyone gets a touch, so that’s kind of what it was today,” Hayes said. “Everyone just doing their part, doing their job. I wouldn’t call it sharp tonight but it was all right.”
Hayes completed 11 of 16 passes for 199 yards with touchdown throws of 36 yards (on fourth-and-21) to Ben Sirois and 26 yards to Dayton Calder. Hayes also rushed for a team-high 89 yards, highlighted by a 52-yard score.
Five Hornets rushed for more than 40 yards, including backup quarterback Noah Carpenter racking up 73 with a score and senior running back Trevor Bosse getting a pair of TDs. Powered by an offensive line with four seniors and one junior, Leavitt rushed for 355 yards on 36 carries.
Sawyer Hathaway led the receivers with seven catches for 146 yards. Calder had three catches for 43 yards and four runs for 68 yards.
Leavitt’s defensive line, led by senior captain Jack Boutaugh, stuffed Wells’ wing-T running attack, which was without injured running back Connor Whitten, who had gained 100-plus yards in each of the Warriors’ first two games. Wells gained a total of 36 yards with one first down.
“The whole team has been anxious for this game for weeks now. For the whole two years (since 2019),” Boutaugh said. “So there’s a lot of built-up anger. A lot of built-up, I don’t even know how to put it into words. A lot of ups and downs.”
Friday’s hyped matchup was the teams’ first since Leavitt’s 22-8 regular season victory that ended Wells’ 33-game win streak in October 2019.
Wells’ first play from scrimmage was from its own 45-yard line. It never got closer to the Leavitt end zone and lost for a second straight week.
“Sometimes you just play a better team,” said Wells coach Tim Roche. “(Leavitt could) win Class B. I really believe that. I mean they beat Portland, 41-8 in a scrimmage and Portland beat Kennebunk.”
Leavitt hurt itself a bit in the first half with five holding calls and a fumble near the red zone but was able to consistently crank out big gains. The offense had 16 plays that gained 10 yards or more. Wells’ long gain was an 8-yard run by Brody Maxon that produced the lone first down.
“You don’t go into Wells and get many victories, so we’re pretty happy, especially up front the way the line played,” Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway said. “I thought we did a good job coming off the ball, and defensively I just liked the way we run to the football and all 11 guys play together.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
