Leavitt Area High School celebrated field hockey Senior Day by adorning the walkway to its field with a sign bearing the name of every impending graduate.

It looked like pretty much every other street corner in Maine during election season. Leavitt has more seniors than most cities have school board candidates.

Four-year sniper Courtney Erskine, hard-hitting midfielder Megan Miller and rock-solid goaltender Kristen Capen draw much of their opponents’ attention, but the Hornets unleash a dozen seniors, in all.

That would be a mixed blessing for most programs, at least those that harbor any hopes of competing in 2009. And yes, the future is now as Leavitt strives for its second straight berth in the Western Class B championship game.

But don’t expect next year … or the year after that … or the year after that … to be any different for a program that first ruled the Mountain Valley Conference and now stands tall in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference in coach Wanda Ward-MacLean’s 25-year tenure.

“We’ve got two freshmen, a sophomore and a couple of juniors that play a lot for us,” Ward-MacLean said. “Most of them are seniors, but we do have a mix of underclassmen.”

MyKayla McCann, a sophomore, scored the third goal Tuesday in a 3-0 shutout of Maine Central Institute. Junior Jenn Vallee and freshman Amanda Jordan also played significant roles against the Huskies. Vallee enjoyed a two-goal game earlier this season against Erskine Academy.

The Hornets have Heal Point-worthy games remaining against 2007 state finalists Waterville and Maranacook as they attempt to chase down York and Greely for a possible top seed in the Western B playoffs.

Shocker in Poland

Whether or not it’s enough to get Poland into the Western Class B boys’ soccer playoffs remains to be seen in a week or two, but Friday’s 3-2, double-overtime win over Freeport is a candidate for upset of the year in the state this season.

Freeport, a regional finalist last fall, carried a six-game winning streak. Poland entered Friday at 1-7, last in Western B Heal Points.

None of that mattered to the Knights, who rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the final 20 minutes of regulation on goals by Joe Murphy and Bryce Galgano. Mackenzie Cook won it in OT as Poland maximized its four shots on goal in the game.

Poland had scored four previous goals all season. The Knights beat Wells 3-0 behind two goals from Cook on Sept. 24. Cook also connected two days earlier in a 4-1 loss to St. Dom’s.

Cougars ride wave

If your name isn’t Skowhegan, Messalonskee, Gardiner or Cony, you belong to the group in which anyone can beat anybody else in Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A field hockey.

The never-changing Big Four entered this past week with a combined record of 30-1. Skowhegan appears untouchable in pursuit of its eighth straight state championship.

Mt. Blue might be both the best of the rest and poster team for everybody else. Consider the last 10 days for the Cougars (6-4). On the plus side, they topped both Hampden and Bangor. In the minus column, Mt. Blue fell to Edward Little – perhaps an elimination game for the eventual No. 5 seed in Eastern A – and was the victim as Oxford Hills picked up its first win of the season.

Being in the mix this season is a bonus for the Cougars, who broke camp with minimal varsity experience after graduating 12 seniors from a team that fell to Oxford Hills in last year’s quarterfinals.

Amanda Hall, a converted midfielder, made a combined 38 saves in the losses to EL and Oxford Hills. Kaitlyn Bullen, a junior, has emerged as Mt. Blue’s primary offensive weapon. Bullen scored two goals against both Hampden and Bangor.

Telstar still unblemished

Unbeaten Telstar closed out a key slate of games this week with a 2-0 win over Livermore Falls, and coach Tim Remington couldn’t be more pleased with how productive it was.

“We had a stretch of four games in about a week-and-a-half that was really big points-wise,” Remington said. “One was postponed (against Lisbon), but we were fortunate to come out with two wins and a tie, which helps. They were pumped for it.”

The Rebels beat Livermore Falls, which was ranked one spot ahead of them in third in the latest Heal Point standings, and tied Georges Valley, which was ranked second. They also beat Mountain Valley and followed the Livermore win with a victory over Jay.

Their match with Lisbon will be made up on Oct. 16.

Frankie Delduca has been a spark for Telstar with five goals and two assists in the last three games. Junior Ethan Morin has chipped in with four goals.

Festival of champions

One of the biggest high school sporting events in recent memory gave runners a chance to test out the course at Trow Howard Middle School in Balfast this weekend.

In all, more than 1,200 runners from dozens of teams across Maine made the trek to Belfast for the Festival of Champions, a cross country race with an alternative format that many teams can use to gauge where they stand against teams from other classes.

The Lewiston Blue Devils boys team fared the best of any local schools, finishing third as a team, behind Class B Greely and Class A Scarborough.

The Red Storm swept the girls and boys races.

Matt Driscoll was the fastest Lewiston runner, blazing the trail in 16:43.5/ Robbie Leeman was the second Blue Devils across, coming in 16th in 17:28.4.

Lewiston total of 136 points from five runners was 44 behind Scarborough, with most of that distance coming fron the teams’ fifth runners.

Mt. Blue was the next-best local entry with its sixth-place finish, while Winthrop was 15th overall, and second overall among Class C boys teams behind Boothbay.

On the girls’ side, the Cougars carried the KVAC banner well, finishing third overall, behind the Red Storm and MDI.

Lewiston was the next local finisher, placing 17th in the girls race. Lisbon, a preseason favorite in Western Class C, was the top Class C school in 27th position.

Thanks for the invitation

Poland High School’s girls cross country team is on a roll.

Its latest victory came this week in the five-team Lake Region Invitational, held Friday in Naples.

Kendra Lobley paced the race for the Knights, besting teammate Natasha Piirainen by almost two minutes to claim the individual crown. Piirainen finished second, and none of the Poland top five finished worse than sixth.

St. Dom’s snuck in at No. 2 in the meet with top-10 finishes from Carloyn Joseph and Naomi McGonagill.

On the boys’ side, Poland’s David Provencher and Dylan Lajoie went 1-2 to lock up a second-place team finish.