Leavitt Coach Mike Hathaway celebrates with players after winning the Class C football state championship against Oceanside at Lewiston High School on Nov. 18. Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald

Mike Hathaway briefly wondered if the task was too big for even a team as exceptional as his Leavitt High football team.

Trailing 32-21 in the fourth quarter against Fryeburg Academy in the Class C South final, the seemingly unstoppable Hornets were in a dire spot. Then, when the visiting Raiders intercepted a pass from Leavitt quarterback Noah Carpenter near midfield, the Hornets’ longtime head coach looked to one of his assistants in resignation.

“I remember saying to Bill (County), ‘We’re going to lose this game. I don’t think there’s enough time for us to come back and do this,’” Hathaway said. “Then, the defense gets a turnover, and the offense comes down and scores. Then, all of the sudden, we score again, and we’re in the lead. It was absolutely wild.”

That was Leavitt football last fall, taking on and beating all comers – even the best of the best two classes above in Class A – and, with its back against the wall, pulling off a remarkable 36-32 comeback. Leavitt’s historic season earned the Hornets the honor of Varsity Maine Boys’ Team of the Year.

The expectations were high entering 2023 for the Hornets, who were coming off an undefeated 2022 season. Although Leavitt lost some key components of that team, it still had a slew of returning players, including lineman Jace Negley and reigning Maine Gatorade Player of the Year Noah Carpenter.

“We felt pretty good coming off our junior year, having the great season we had and winning the state championship,” Carpenter said. “We knew with the guys we had and with the mentality we had that, if we put in the work, we could be the first team in Leavitt history to go back-to-back.”

Carpenter threw for 1,801 yards and 21 touchdowns and rushed for 1,351 yards and 23 touchdowns. He repeated as Maine Gatorade Player of the Year and won the Fitzpatrick Trophy, as well as being named Varsity Maine football player of the year for the second year in a row.

Carpenter had elite skill players at his disposal in Maddox Demers (58 carries, 432 yards) and Will Keach (54 carries, 552 yards; 33 catches, 451 yards), and a trio of first-team all-conference offensive linemen in front of him in Negley, Mason Twitchell and Kavon Graham-Jones. Together, they formed a unit that averaged 47.5 points per game.

Carpenter (defensive back), Demers (linebacker), Negley and Graham-Jones (both defensive line) were also first-team all-conference players on defense. They were joined by Brandon Bilodeau (defensive back), Colten Taylor (linebacker) and Nash Angstrom (line).

Leavitt celebrates after winning the Class C state championship against Oceanside in Lewiston on Nov. 18. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

“Our team, we all just put in so much hard work, day in and day out,” said Negley, who won the Gaziano Award as the state’s top senior defensive lineman. “To have that kind of success, it felt great, especially as a senior; to be able to cap off my high school career like that was amazing.”

Leavitt began the season with a 45-8 win over Fryeburg before dominating Cape Elizabeth and York, 45-7 and 63-13, respectively. Then came a 21-14 homecoming victory in front of nearly 5,000 fans against defending Class A champion Oxford Hills, which entered with a 14-game winning streak.

That victory was the first of four straight for Leavitt against higher-class teams. The following week, the Hornets claimed a 62-32 win over a Lawrence team that would go on to win Class B North. They then beat Lewiston, 51-13, before scoring 29 unanswered points in the second half in a 35-21 win over eventual Class A champion Thornton Academy.

“The change in that team and the way it came back in the second half, it was unbelievable,” Hathaway said of the win at Thornton Academy. “I haven’t been a part of many comebacks like that, and the thing about it is, if we don’t have that experience of going to TA and coming back to win like that after that kind of deficit, I don’t think we beat Fryeburg in the regional final.”

After closing out the regular season with a 34-14 win over Cheverus and breezing past Cape Elizabeth, 59-26, in the Class C South semifinals, the Hornets were pushed to the brink by Fryeburg in the regional final. Unlike the Week 1 battle, the Raiders had the upper hand for much of this one, behind 271 receiving yards and four touchdowns from University of Maine-bound wide receiver Logan Walton.

Yet even with Fryeburg up 11 and in possession of the ball early in the fourth quarter, Leavitt found a way. The Hornets forced a turnover and turned it into a quick scoring drive, as Carpenter ran in for an 11-yard touchdown. After a Fryeburg punt, Carpenter scored the go-ahead touchdown from the 2 with 3:35 left.

Fryeburg then drove deep into Leavitt territory, but Carpenter sealed the win with an interception in the end zone in the final seconds.

“Even though it was a hard game, I always had confidence in our team and knew that we could pull through,” said Negley, who ended the season with 15 sacks and 25 tackles for loss. “It was a brutal game physically for all of us, but in the end, I think we wanted it more and just refused to go out like that, and we showed it.”

Still, there was one more game to go for Leavitt to claim a second consecutive Gold Ball – and the Hornets made it their crowning achievement. Taking on an undefeated Oceanside team that had averaged 44.6 points per game while allowing just 14.8, Leavitt raced to a 43-0 halftime lead en route to a 71-12 victory.

“It was just truly amazing and kind of mind-blowing that we were able to put that many points up in a state championship game,” Carpenter said. “We knew what we had to do going into that game, and we kind of just rolled them. That’s just the mindset that Hath has instilled in us.”