Matt Powell finally caught Leavitt offensive line coach Dave Bochtler’s attention after the siren signaling the end of a lopsided third quarter sounded.

Powell, Leavitt’s 6-foot-7, 280-pound tackle/defensive tackle, was winded and clearly needed a break. Thirty-six minutes of being a human bulldozer will do that.

In the box score, Powell and the rest of the offensive line, tackle Matt Child, guards Nick Nason and Will Parkin and center Levi Morin opened up 358 yards of soon-to-be-frozen tundra for a quartet of Leavitt running backs Friday night.

In the hearts and minds of a capacity home crowd at Libby Field, they cleared the road to Fitzpatrick Stadium, where Leavitt will be making its fourth appearance in five years next Saturday after Friday night’s 48-21 Western Class C championship victory over Spruce Mountain.

The numbers, which also include 25 first downs, only tell part of the story of just how impressive Leavitt’s line was Friday night. They were challenged by a tough-minded Spruce Mountain defense early, and they matched their physical prowess with mental accuity.

“They’ve been on a pretty good run these last four weeks. Those guys have played some pretty good football,” Leavitt head coach Mike Hathaway said. “We’ve seen some different fronts out of some teams and we’ve had to make some adjustments along the way. We added a few new schemes this week and those guys did a good job of picking them up.”

“They’re real smart and they’re real cohesive,” Hathaway said. “Those guys, and you throw the tight ends in there, too with Scott (Sleeper) and Mitch (Davis), those guys take a lot of pride in what they’re doing. They work by far the hardest on our team every week.”

Line coach Dave Bochtler, who returned this season after a one-year sabbatical in Lewiston, gets everyone on the same page whenever some new pages are added to the playbook.

“They worked hard all year. They bought into the system,” Bochtler said. “I came back here to be here tonight. We’re here. They deserve the credit.”

The credit belongs to the two massive bookend tackles, Powell and the 6-foot-4, 300-pound Child. Nason and Parkin, the only junior in the quintet, would total as many yards as the Hornets’ running backs if statisticians didn’t require them to have a ball in their hands. Morin, the center and leader of the group, is the rock in the middle.

“Our guards in our lineup are more like fullbacks, the way we pull them so much,” Bochtler said. “And then there’s the captain of our line, the center. He’s calling checks and making adjustments as necessary.”

And there were some crucial adjustments needed after Spruce Mountain came out with an aggressive defensive game plan.

“I give credit (to Spruce Mountain). They gave us a lot of trouble in the first half. I just think a few adjustments helped,” Morin said.

Spruce Mountain’s linebackers came out with their ears pinned back, blitzing Leavitt’s patented sweeps. It paid off immediately as they forced a fumble on the game’s first play from scrimmage, which Anthony York recovered at the Hornets’ 36 to set up the game’s first touchdown.

The Hornets didn’t panic. They just went back to their bread-and-butter and churned out a 10-play, 59-yard game-tying drive on their next possession. All 10 plays were runs.

Leavitt changed things up only slightly on the next scoring drive, which put them ahead for good, running eight times on a nine-play drive.

That was only a hint of what would come in a dominant third quarter in which the Hornets would outgain the Phoenix, 188-4 and pick up eight first downs. They ran the ball on all 16 snaps and scored 20 points to open up a 41-14 lead.

“All we had to was just move over and have a couple of guys get on their linebackers, and we were all set,” Morin said. “We knew we just had to come out and run the ball like we did in the first half. Our two-for-two zone blocking was great. We picked up their blitzes. It was just a great effort on everybody’s part.”

“I haven’t seen a line play like that… I haven’t run behind one that blocked like that in a really long time, probably ever,” said senior all-purpose back Nate Coombs. “Our game plan was to run the ball. We put it on our O-line because they’re really our strong suit. I mean, our backs do a good job finding the hole, but there’s always a hole there.”

Leavitt’s running backs made the holes sting like open wounds by running hard and finishing their carries for extra yardage. Coombs led the group with 104 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries. Billy Bedard had 95 and a touchdown on 13 rushes. Conor O’Malley carried 12 times for 89 yards and three touchdowns and Nate Rousseau 12 times for 63 yards and a score.

Leavitt’s dominance on the ground brought back memories of a similar performance when it last won a state title in 2009 against Cape Elizabeth.

That offensive line, led by Matt Pellerin, Mitch Cobb and company, blocked for a 230-pound bull of a tailback in Josh Strickland.

Whoever comes out of Eastern C on Saturday might end up wishing it had only Strickland to worry about next week because at least they might be able to spot him running behind the likes of Powell and Child. Trying to find anyone in this more diminutive committee is like trying to stop bullets shot out of a tank, after the tank has pancaked them to the turf.

Randy Whitehouse is a staff writer. His email address is rwhitehouse@sunjournal.com

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