TURNER — Eric Theiss was the linchpin.

Facing a third-and-goal from the 10 in overtime, Leavitt Area High School coach Mike Hathaway sent in his senior quarterback with a play.

The Hampden defense was jittery. They’d just stuffed Josh Strickland twice from the same spot, but this time, Strickland wasn’t in the same spot.

Theiss faked to Strickland, rolled left and kept the ball on the option, trotting into the end zone to life the Hornets to a thrilling 29-22 season-opening overtime win over Hampden Academy on Friday.

“I had to beat the end, and he just folded down,” Theiss said. “I tucked the ball and just kept going.”

“We had that scripted from the beginning. We were going two runs to Josh and the the option left,” Hathaway said. “If we’d missed, we had the ball on the left hash for a field goal try.”

No field goals were necessary.

The Leavitt defense held strong on four consecutive pass plays on the Broncos’ possession in overtime to preserve the victory. It was that defense — and in particular Lucas Witham — that helped the Hornets get into overtime in the first place.

Trailing 22-20 with two minutes to play in regulation, a Theiss punt backed Hampden down to its own 4-yard-line. Two runs and a Hampden penalty later, QB Jonathan Haws tried to roll left out of the end zone. Witham sniffed out the play and sacked Haws for a safety to tie the game at 22.

“They’d tried to go up the middle the last two times, and I thought they might sneak out that way” Hathaway said. “I told the guys to stay alert, and if they had the opportunity to get him, to go after him hard.”

“I read the play, saw what he was trying to do and I just went for it,” Witham said.

Hampden coach Harry McCluskey said after the game he wasn’t sure, in hindsight, if the play he’d called was the right one.

“That play I ran down there coming out. I thought we could get around the corner,”McCluskey said. “If I hadn’t have called that, maybe we go to fourth down and we punt it out, who knows? You can always go back and look at a lot of things after a game like this.”

It was a game in which Leavitt didn’t hold a lead until overtime.

Hampden came out slowly, as did the Hornets. But the Broncos struck first on a Michael Jenkins dive from the 1-yard-line. Alex Cust made it 9-0 with a 26-yard boot early in the second.

Theiss scored the first of his three TDs on an eight-yard run with 4:53 to play in the half, but the Broncos came right back with a 54-yard pass play from Haws to Nolan Turner, giving the visitors a 15-7 halftime lead.

“It took a while for our line to get adjusted,” Hathaway said. “We made some moves at halftime, and it paid off.”

After falling behind 22-7 in the third, the Hornets, and Josh Strickland, went to work. The Hornets’ feature back, who gained just 22 yards in the first half, exploded for 137 in the second half, including a 38-yard scamper early in the fourth quarter to pull Leavitt to within two at 22-20.

There, Leavitt went for two, and the ball appeared to cross the goal line, but the officials ruled the ball down, leaving the Hornets to play catch-up still.

In a “phew” moment for the Leavitt faithful, Theiss left the game in the second half and was seen shaking his throwing arm. He returned in limited action on offense only in the fourth quarter, but never threw the ball again, and had a bandage wrapped near his right elbow.

“He should be fine to go next week,” Hathaway said.