WINSLOW – Ben Franklin once said there are lies, damned lies and then there are statistics. He wasn’t referring to time of possession in the game of football, but the man on the $100 bill probably would have been saying “I told you so” after Saturday’s Leavitt-Winslow tilt.

Leavitt held onto the ball for all but a little over two minutes in the first half, yet dug itself another big hole early with breakdowns on defense and special teams and never recovered in a 41-12 loss to Winslow Saturday at Poulin Field.

Cory Bezanson ran for 137 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries and the Winslow special teams blocked one punt for a touchdown and returned another for a score to hand the Hornets their first loss of the season despite being outgained, 300-241, in total yards.

“We scored early on special teams and big plays. The punt block and the punt return were very, very big,” said Winslow coach Mike Siviski. “Things went our way. Obviously things didn’t go Leavitt’s way.”

Things didn’t go Leavitt’s way from the first snap in the rain. Quarterback Evan Barker fumbled on the first play. and James Wood recovered for Winslow at the Hornet 39. Bezanson took the hand-off on the Black Raiders’ first snap up the middle untouched for a score. Scott Siviski’s extra point gave Winslow a 7-0 lead just 21 seconds in.

On its next series, Leavitt (2-1) went three-and-out and had to punt from its own 18. Ben Grant blocked the kick and Eric Bezanson pounced on it in the end zone. Siviski’s PAT put Leavitt down 14-0 with 9:40 left in the first quarter.

The Hornets were in virtually the same position last week, when they trailed Oak Hill 14-0 early in the second quarter and rallied for a 34-29 win. Head coach Mike Hathaway would like his team to break that habit.

“We’ve tried taking the ball, we’ve tried kicking off. I don’t know what it’s going to take,” he said. “We’re going to take a look at that and talk about it and try to address it as best we can.”

Another rally looked possible when the Hornets answered the special teams miscue with a 16-play, 70-yard drive, converting two fourth-and-short yardage plays to keep the drive alive before Josh Strickland (15 carries, 57 yards) scored on a six-yard run to make it 14-6 late in the first quarter.

But the defensive stops that came in the Oak Hill win didn’t materialize in the first half against Winslow (3-0). The Black Raiders drove 60 yards on just five plays and Wood scored on a 21-yard QB keeper to make it 21-6. He followed that with a 52-yard punt return for a touchdown and it was 28-6 just 70 seconds into the second quarter.

Leavitt answered with another grinder of a drive. Starting at their own 31, the Hornets marched to the Winslow 10 in 15 plays. They appeared to pull back within two touchdowns when Barker (19 rushes, 76 yards) faked a hand-off to fullback Jeff Newton and ran up the middle for a touchdown. But the play was whistled dead by an official who was faked out and declared Newton down when he was tackled without the ball. The Hornets got a first down at the seven yard-line out of the play, but Siviski picked Barker off in the end zone on 3rd-and-goal with 56 seconds left.

“Our guys are pretty good at meshing inside and they got fooled and blew the whistle and took away a score,” Hathaway said. “It would have been nice to get that one because I think it would have been a closer game in the second half, but that’s out of our control.”

The Hornets ended the first half having run 40 plays to Winslow’s eight.

“We moved the ball well. I thought we blocked fairly well,” Hathaway said. “We had a couple of turnovers and a couple of penalties that put us in some spots. We’ve just got some little things that we need to get better at to be a better team.”

Winslow piled on with its longest series of the day to open the second half, a 12-play, 65 yard drive capped by Cory Moser’s two-yard TD run. Cory Bezanson made it 41-6 with a 44-yard TD run. Barker completed the scoring with a 24-yard run early in the fourth quarter.