Football: Leavitt makes most of its trip to Portland, beats Bulldogs

Leavitt’s football team feels that it should have been at Fitzpatrick Stadium last November, but a loss to Cape Elizabeth on the final play of the Class C South final prevented that from happening.

Instead, the Hornets made the most of their appearance on the big stage Friday evening against the Portland Bulldogs.

Leavitt, riding the multi-skilled brilliance of junior quarterback Noah Carpenter, scored on its opening drive, opened up a 28-0 halftime advantage and rolled to a 42-8 victory to improve to 2-0 on the young season.

“We were all excited to come here and play at one of the best stadiums in Maine,” said Carpenter, who completed 9 of 13 passes for 93 yards and ran nine times for 112 yards and three touchdowns. “Everyone showed up and it was just the best experience.”

The Hornets got possession to start the contest and drove 66 yards in nine plays to take the lead to stay on a 10-yard touchdown run by Will Keach.

Portland, which lost starting quarterback Sam Esposito to a broken collarbone in last week’s win over Kennebunk, hung tough the rest of the first quarter, but Leavitt broke it open in the second.

First, Carpenter scored on a 10-yard run and Maddox Demers added the 2-point conversion.

Then, after a successful onside kick followed by a fake punt, Keach scored for the second time, this one from 10 yards out.

A 3-yard scoring run from Carpenter and a 2-point rush from Braxton Rowe made it 28-0 at the half.

The Bulldogs rose off the deck in the third quarter, as sophomore quarterback Louis Thurston (5 of 8, 105 yards, one TD and two interceptions) found Remijo Wani for a 61-yard scoring strike, but Carpenter countered by breaking away for a 59-yard score to make it 36-8.

The Hornets then added one final touchdown in the fourth quarter, as Demers scored on a 3-yard burst.

“The chance to play Portland, in Portland, that doesn’t come up for teams like us a lot,” said Hornets coach Michael Hathaway. “Kudos to our guys for getting enough respect to get a game like this. It was great to come down and play in an atmosphere like this.”

Portland coach Jason McLeod said his team did some positive things, but with Bonny Eagle and Oxford Hills looming on the schedule, the Bulldogs have to figure things out quickly.

“We just can’t make the mistakes we did in the first half,” he said. “We made mistakes in all three phases in the first half and they capitalized on them. In the second half, we did some things we can build on.

“It’s next man up. We want the tough schedule and to play teams cross-conference, but if we don’t get better, it could be a long season. We just have to tighten things up and get better week by week.”