TURNER — Mason Henderson almost made two costly mistakes during the Leavitt football team’s opening drive against Foxcroft Academy, but the senior slotback didn’t think about them for long.
Henderson had two big scoring plays under his belt by halftime, a 42-yard reception on third-and-long and an 11-yard jet sweep, as he helped Leavitt beat Foxcroft 34-3 in a Class C South quarterfinal Friday.
“Just had to kind of keep my head up, tell (sophomore quarterback Landon) Marquis that I’m sorry, because I made him look a little bad, too,” Henderson said. “But just keep my head up (and) know that I can make plays if I need to.”
Leavitt will host No. 3 Hermon in a Class C semifinal. The Hornets defeated Hermon, 12-7, in the regular-season finale.
The Hornets (7-2) scored on their first four drives, and junior defensive back Cooper Morin nabbed two interceptions in the second quarter to help the second-seeded Hornets build a 26-3 halftime lead.
Nathan Karkos (64-yard TD run) and Randan Hutchinson (11 carries, 83 yards) added first-half rushing scores.
“That’s what I feel like one of our strong things is,” Hutchinson said. “Everybody can touch the ball and effectively does something for the team.”
“Sometimes you have to win games on offense, sometimes on defense, sometimes special teams, and sometimes it takes a combination of the three,” Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway said. “So we just tried to spend a lot of time these last two weeks (during the bye), just shoring up some things in all three phases of the game to be a little bit better for the playoffs.”
No. 7 Foxcroft, the winner of the four previous Class D North titles, ends its first season back in Class C at 6-4.
Senior nose guard Reid Langlois was a constant presence in the Ponies’ backfield with multiple tackles for loss and a pass breakup at the line. Foxcroft only gained three non-penalty first downs after a nine-minute, 16-play opening drive. Sophomore kicker Leo De La Poza drilled a 21-yard field goal after the Leavitt defense stood tall.
“Offensively, we didn’t move the ball well enough to win a football game on the road in the playoffs,” Foxcroft coach Danny White said. “At times, we played pretty well, but over the course of the game, we just didn’t play with enough pace to be able to keep up.”
Senior running back Landon Smith led Foxcroft with 43 yards on 11 carries.
While rain picked up in the second quarter and continued throughout the game, Leavitt was still able to establish its passing game in the second half. Marquis finished 6 of 10 for 133 yards, with two TDs and an interception.
Late in the third quarter, Marquis found Hutchinson on a third-down checkdown that turned into a 22-yard conversion before connecting with Brody Poland on a 37-yard pass to get into the red zone. Three plays later, Marquis tried to hit Karkos for a touchdown, but the ball went through the junior tight end’s hands. Nick Mellon followed the play and caught it in the back of the end zone.
“Whenever the two tight ends are in, if I call a pass play for one of them, the other one gets mad,” Hathaway said. “That play was for Nate, and it went to Nate. He obviously dropped it, but Mellon was there to scoop it up, so he was giving me the side eye when he came back to the sideline.”
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