Editor’s note: The Sun Journal sports staff voted on the area’s top sports stories of 2023 and will be counting down the top 10 through the end of the year.

Aiden Turcotte was in motion and expecting to get the ball, but then he saw the snap to Leavitt quarterback Noah Carpenter hit the ground.

Turcotte later told Hornets coach Mike Hathaway that he assumed that the play was broken, so he kept running and looked to help block a path for Carpenter to follow.

Instead, Carpenter, who trapped the ball right as it hit the ground, quickly did a two-hand toss toward Turcotte, who by that point was running away from Carpenter and looking forward.

Carpenter yelled, “Turc!” and somehow the ball ended up in Turcotte’s swinging arm. Turcotte wasn’t expecting the ball, but he maintained his stride and ran the ball into the end zone for a 4-yard touchdown catch.

“It was kind of just like magical the way he was running, his arm just came up and the ball kind of just placed perfectly in his arm,” Carpenter said last week.

Turcotte’s touchdown happened in the second half of Leavitt’s Class C South semifinal win over Cape Elizabeth in November, a couple weeks before the Hornets claimed their second consecutive state championship by beating Oceanside 71-12.

The beauty of the play is twofold: Carpenter made the perfect pass, and Turcotte caught it and scored without a visible hint that he broke his stride. It wasn’t until after he crossed the goal line that he showed any sort of surprise about what happened.

The play also is symbolic of Leavitt’s 2023 football season: it was magical and the Hornets made the magic happen.

FACING THE BEST

The Maine Principals’ Association changed its football scheduling rules a couple of years ago to allow teams to put together schedules more suitable to their talent and success levels.

The Hornets have since taken a we’ll-play-anyone approach to scheduling.

In 2022, their schedule included eventual Class B runner-up Portland, Class A Lewiston and perennial Class B contender Lawrence. The Hornets went undefeated and won the Class C state championship, and they did both in dominating fashion.

They upped the ante in 2023.

After opening the season with three wins over Class C foes, Leavitt went through a gauntlet of upper-class teams in defending Class A champion Oxford Hills, eventual Class B finalist Lawrence, Lewiston and then Thornton Academy — the eventual Class A champ and for the past decade the premiere high school football program in the state.

Whether it was their intent or not, the Hornets were chasing greatness. They knew that they faced a tough schedule, but they also recognized that they were loaded with talent, experience and good coaching.

So their attitude wasn’t, “Why not us?” like underdogs. Instead, it was, “Why not?”

“We knew that we were a good team, and we wanted to prove to everyone that just because we’re Class C, that doesn’t mean that we can’t play with anyone that in the state,” Carpenter said. “We kind of just realized that we have the talent, we have the skill players and obviously the linemen to do it, so why not do it?”

First came a close 21-14 win over Oxford Hills, in which Leavitt built an early two-touchdown lead and then held off the Vikings. That was followed by a 62-32 win at Lawrence, in a game that looked like it might be close until the Hornets tore away from the Bulldogs. They then conquered Lewiston 51-13. The epic four-game stretch ended with a 35-21 win over Thornton in Saco.

In the Thornton game, the Hornets fell behind early by two touchdowns and trailed 21-6 at halftime. But they bounced back in a big way in the second half, scoring 29 unanswered points.

The Hornets also trailed by two touchdowns — twice — in the Class C South final against Fryeburg. They battled back and then held on to win the regional title when Carpenter intercepted a pass in the end zone.

Carpenter said that falling behind didn’t create doubt in either game.

“I don’t think there’s anywhere in our minds,” he said. “Both games we end up going into halftime down, and we kind of just, you know, talk over what we’re seeing out on the field, the coaches talk what they see and kind of just put together a good game plan to come in second quarter or second half and kick some butt.”

LOADED LEAVITT

Hathaway has said that Leavitt potentially had the top three players in the state this season: Carpenter, Will Keach and Jace Negley. It’s difficult to argue against it. Those three are, at least, among the best of the best in Maine. And they played a big part in the Hornets being so good this year.

But what made Leavitt next-level great was its overall talent, which Carpenter, Keach and Negley recognized as much as anyone else.

“There’s (a lot) key parts of this team, and that is the reason why we’re so good,” Carpenter said in late November. “We’ve got a lot of humble guys. Like, you know, Jace could easily say, ‘Yeah, I’m the top lineman in the state,’ but (also) Jace would easily say, ‘We have the best line, and our guys work the hardest.’”

Leavitt’s abundance of talent was on display in the Class C championship game victory over Oceanside.

Eight Hornets contributed a touchdown to the 71-point performance. The defense was dominant, the offense was unstoppable, and Leavitt capped its season by leaving zero doubt about who the best team in Class C and the entire state was in 2023.

Not only that, the Hornets’ greatness will be remembered and discussed for years to come — the Class C team that took on and took down the state’s best, the small-town squad that beat the biggest schools in the state.

“I told the kids after the game, like that’s immortality right there,” Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway said. “We just put up a season that nobody else in Maine has ever put up before. And that’ll go down forever. Nobody’s taking that one away from us.”

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