TURNER – In the four games following their last meeting with Leavitt, the Morse Shipbuilders have kept their end zone locked up and thrown away the key.

Top-seeded Leavitt tried to jimmy the lock open in the first half of the Pine Tree Conference Class B semifinal on a foggy Friday night, but Morse wasn’t giving up the goal line so easily.

The fifth-seeded Shipbuilders (7-2) later showed the Hornets (8-2) how it’s done on the doorstep, then closed out a classic defensive stand-off with a clock-killing drive and an interception to pull off a 7-0 upset.

“It was what we thought it would be, just an all-out classic high school football game,” said Morse coach Jason Libby.

Leavitt remains the last team to score on Morse, but that’s no consolation to the Hornets, or likely even Mount Desert Island, which will host the Shipbuilders in next week’s regional final. The Hornets put up a pair of touchdowns in a 19-12 loss on Oct. 10.

Controlling the ball for nearly 18 of the first 24 minutes, the Hornets looked like they might snap Morse’s shutout streak at 15 quarters when they converted a pair of 4th-and-shorts on a 14-play march that poured over into the second quarter.

They had two cracks at the end zone from the 1. On 3rd-and-goal, Morse’s Tyler Russell stopped Josh Strickland (15 rushes, 50 yards) for no gain. On fourth down, Tyler Green (17 carries, 67 yards) tried to plow in off the left tackle, but Alex Kee stopped him with the initial hit and Ryan Chaney finished him off just inches shy of the goal line.

“(Green) is leading the league in touchdowns and he’s our guy down near the goal-line,” Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway said. “We thought he was in, but they said he wasn’t and that’s the way it goes. It’s a game of inches.”

Leavitt’s defense, led by omnipresent linebacker Kolby Youland, held Morse to just 53 total yards in the first half.

“That’s the best I’ve seen a linebacker play in eight years here, and we’ve had some pretty good ones play here and we’ve played against some pretty good ones,” Hathaway said. “He was just everywhere tonight.”

Despite the Hornets’ defensive effort, Morse got a huge shift in field position following its goal-line stand when Chaney beat a heavy rush and booted a 52-yard punt from out of his own end zone. That sent Leavitt back to its own 38, and the Hornets would reach Morse territory only twice more on the night.

The teams exchanged fumbles to start the second half, but Morse capitalized on their opportunity after Jay Underwood recovered a Strickland fumble at his own 31. The Shipbuilders converted a pair of 3rd-and-long plays, including a 32-yard pass from Michael Walton to Chaney that the Leavitt sideline argued was the result of a push-off by Chaney.

“It went both ways. We were both trying to make a play on the ball,” Chaney said. “I just luckily got position and Mike threw a great ball to me.”

Seven plays later, J Cavanagh went up the gut to pound it in on 4th-and-goal from the 1, and Morse had all the points it needed with 35 seconds left in the third quarter.

Morse later gave Leavitt a taste of its own first-half medicine, going on a seven-plus minute drive in the fourth quarter to make the Hornets’ last possession all the more desperate.

Taking over at their own 31 with 4:20 left, Leavitt got as far as the Morse 32 before Chaney picked off a tipped Eric Theiss pass inside his own 10 with 1:02 remaining.