PARIS — Leavitt’s coaches and senior leaders lit a fire under the Hornets at halftime, then junior striker Garrett Addison lit up the scoreboard in the second half.

Addison scored twice and assisted on a third goal as Leavitt scored three times in the second half to rally to a 3-1 victory over Oxford Hills at Gouin Athletic Complex on Tuesday.

“We did not look good that first half,” Leavitt coach Zac Conlogue said. “We haven’t had that little energy in a half, I think, since last year. We really let them have it at halftime and they woke up. Oxford Hills made us look silly in that first half.”

“We played soft in the first half and (Conlogue) is a very competitive person and wants us to succeed,” Addison said. “He pushes us to do our hardest, and that’s what we tried to do in the second half.”

After that somewhat listless first half, Leavitt came out the aggressor from the start of the second half. Addison’s tying goal 3:21 into the half just seemed to give the Hornets a little extra motivation to keep pushing.

“I think that was a difference-maker,” Conlogue said. “We were definitely on our heels for most of the game up to then and that really set the tone in the first five minutes of the second half.”

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The Hornets countered off a Vikings corner kick to score what turned out to be the game-winning goal.

Evan Cossey took a pass near midfield and lofted it over Oxford Hills’ back line about 25 yards to a sprinting Addison for a breakaway. Addison never slowed down as he beat Vikings goalie Sam Morton to the lower-left corner with 14:29 remaining.

“I knew he was going to look for me,” Addison said. “The defense was playing so high up so he just chipped it over them and I took off from there. I just wanted to tuck it into the corner.”

Addison set up the insurance goal with 4:32 remaining, crossing from the right wing towards the far post, where Connor Cyr fought through a crowd in front of the net to boot it to Morton’s right.

“I think they outworked us,” Oxford Hills coach Matt Dietrich said. “I think we were flat and we made a couple of mistakes. They didn’t have a whole lot of shots. We dominated play, but if you don’t dominate play and score at the same time, it doesn’t do a lot of good.”

Tomas Mendieta scored the lone Vikings’ goal 16:26 into the game, tucking a shot inside the near post from about 15 yards out.

The two teams tied, 3-3, in their previous meeting on Sep. 19 in Turner. Since then, the Hornets are 3-1. They are 5-1-1 since an 0-2-2 start.

“We’ve been playing well for the last month,” Addison said. “We’re just clicking. We understand each other.”

Oxford Hills dropped to 1-8-1 with the loss.

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