Coach Mike Hathaway of Leavitt Area High celebrates with his team after the Hornets beat Cape Elizabeth to capture the 2022 Class C South title. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal
The undefeated Leavitt Area High football team is on a historic journey. The Hornets, the defending Class C champions, are entering Week 4 of a four-game stretch of playing teams in higher enrollment classes.
Three weeks ago, Leavitt beat defending Class A champion Oxford Hills, 21-14. Then the Hornets outscored Class B Lawrence in Fairfield, 62-32, a week later. Last Friday, they trounced Class A Lewiston, 51-13, after leading 51-0 at halftime, for their 17th straight win.
Now comes a trip to Saco on Saturday to take on Thornton Academy, which has won four straight games. Leavitt, located in Turner, has 572 students. Thornton, the Class A runner-up in 2022 and winner of five Class A titles since 2012, has 1,345 students. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
Leavitt (6-0) is the unanimous No. 1 team in the latest Varsity Maine poll. Thornton (4-2) is ranked fourth.
Leavitt Coach Mike Hathaway said he and his coaching staff have not made a big deal out of the schedule when speaking to their players.
“We don’t talk about it a ton, but we did make it a point when we played Oxford Hills and again this week with Thornton,” Hathaway said, “just the fact that they’re letting us play teams like this hasn’t happened before.”
Prior to the 2019 season, teams in Maine were essentially locked into playing within their own enrollment class. In 2019 and 2021, there were a handful of interclass games, primarily to help build the schedule for the eight-team Class A division. In 2022, the schedules were opened further with the intent to create more competitive games throughout all four of the 11-man divisions.
“Believe me, that it’s historic isn’t lost on me. It may never happen again,” Hathaway said of his team’s schedule. “Leavitt may never go to TA again, and to get them on their Homecoming, I’m sure it’s going to be a big crowd.”
Leavitt has been led again this year by senior dual-threat quarterback Noah Carpenter, the 2022 Varsity Maine Player of the Year and an all-around player who excels on defense and in special teams.
Carpenter is averaging 13.4 yards per carry, rushing 48 times for 642 yards and 11 touchdowns. He has completed 47 of 70 passes (67.1%) for 1,010 yards and 12 scores, has scored five 2-point conversions, and has made 19 of 22 PAT attempts and his only field-goal attempt. He’s also a force on defense, with 55 tackles, two interceptions, a fumble recovery and a forced fumble.
“Physically, Noah’s probably in better shape than he was last year. He’s so important on both sides of the ball and on special teams. He basically doesn’t come off the field. It’s allowed him to be more consistent because he’s not as tired,” Hathaway said.
As a quarterback, Carpenter’s understanding of the run-pass option and what to do against certain defensive coverages has also grown.
“He’s finishing my sentences sometimes in practice. The questions he’s asking are at a way higher level,” Hathaway said.
John Wolfgram won 309 games and 10 state championships in a 40-year career as a head coach. Now in his 53rd season overall as a part-time assistant for Cheverus – which plays Leavitt next week in a Class C South game – Wolfgram said to play up in class “four weeks in a row is absolutely unprecedented.”
What Leavitt is accomplishing brings back memories of the 1989 Marshwood team that went 12-0 in Class A. The scenario was different, but it was Marshwood’s first season in Class A. Only three seasons removed from being in Class C, the Hawks had plenty of doubters despite returning great talent from an unbeaten Class B title team in 1988.
“That Marshwood team was one of the top five teams I’ve seen in my coaching career,” said Wolfgram, who was then coaching at South Portland.
While Hathaway is quick to point out that Cheverus and Fryeburg are formidable foes in his own Class C South league, this 2023 Leavitt team looks like it deserves a spot in the history books, regardless of what happens Saturday at Thornton.
“It’s certainly very ambitious of Mike (Hathaway) to do that, and he wanted to show that their program was comparable in the state to anybody’s. And Leavitt is a really, really good football team,” Wolfgram said.
GREELY TURNED HEADS with its 12-8 win against previously unbeaten Yarmouth, further tightening what looks to be a highly competitive eight-man Large School South division.
Greely is in its second year in eight-man after not having a stand-alone team at all from 2019-21. Last year, the Rangers and first-time head coach Caleb King went 0-7. Now they are 3-3, have a large 44-player roster, and have won back-to-back close games against last year’s Large School finalists, having topped Waterville, 26-22, at Colby College the week before.
In snapping defending champion Yarmouth’s eight-game winning streak, Greely was able to slow down the Clippers’ Michael McGonagle, something few teams have done the past two seasons. A week after rushing for over 500 yards against Mountain Valley, McGonagle was held to 94 yards on 26 carries by a defense ready to play smash-mouth football.
“He had a little less than 100 yards on 20-something carries,” King said. “He’s a very good football player, a tough runner, a patient back, but we were honest with our guys. We can play tough. We can gang-tackle and continue to pressure them on every play, or we can hang our heads and let them do it to us.”
King credited cornerback Wes Piper, linebacker Owen Stewart and defensive end Brayden Van Pembrook as leaders on defense, adding that Ben McCarron stepped up his play to fill in for injured players.
Yarmouth (5-1) will try to clinch the top spot in the Large School South division when it hosts Brunswick (4-2) in the final week of the eight-man regular season. Brunswick is coming off a 66-14 loss to Mt. Ararat (3-3). Greely plays Gray-New Gloucester (1-5). All six teams (including winless Lake Region) will make the playoffs, with the top two receiving byes.
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