Leavitt football coach Mike Hathaway doesn’t take getting to a state title game for granted.

Including the Class C final Saturday against Greely, Hathaway’s Hornets will have played in nine state championship games since 2009. Leavitt has won five of those games to cap undefeated seasons, most recently in 2022 and 2023.

The longtime coach knows what’s needed to survive a 12-week season, and so do the players. The standard has been engrained in the program for years. But as Leavitt experienced in 2024 and during the first half of 2025, growing pains can still occur. This year’s journey to the championship stage offered a reminder.

“Sometimes you realize how hard it is to get there, and (that) just makes you appreciate it,” Hathaway said before a practice this week on the Edward Little High turf. “So the fact that we’re doing it again is pretty cool, and the fact that this is the first time we’ve done it with a team that hasn’t run the table before, it’s kind of cool.”

At 11 a.m. Saturday, second-seeded Leavitt (8-2) will face a team that has, so far, run the table.

When the top-seeded Rangers (10-0) beat the Hornets in Week 2, Greely coach Caleb King didn’t call it a statement win. But a victory over Leavitt on Lewiston’s Don Roux Field would put an exclamation point on Greely’s first season back at the 11-man level.

King took over head coaching duties at his alma mater in 2022, and the varsity program went 0-7 in the eight-man Large School division. Now, the Rangers are in their third straight state final and looking to make history as the first team to win an eight-man title and an 11-man title in consecutive seasons.

“It’s great for Greely football as a whole,” said King, the Campbell Conference coach of the year. “Leavitt is always synonymous with a powerhouse in Maine high school football, and, you know, hopefully we’re continuing to work ourselves toward that. But I think throughout the community, it gives them something to be proud of, too.”

Both Greely and Leavitt have dynamic offenses and big-time playmakers.

The Rangers are averaging 36.3 points, behind junior QB Luke Piper (76 of 135 passing, 1,372 yards, 20 TDs, 7 INTs; 409 rushing yards, 7 TDs) and junior running back Noah Allen (115 carries, 965 yards, 12 TDs). Senior Ben Kyles and junior Jackson Justice are the top receiving targets.

Greely hasn’t scored fewer than 20 points all season, and execution has improved with each week. During the first half of the season, the Rangers struggled with putting together complete games. A mental shift from the big picture to the details helped Greely stay grounded.

“We’ve dialed in on one game and one play at a time, and I feel like we’ve just given our effort in practice,” Allen said. “(In Week 5), we’re like, ‘We got to change this. We got to show up every single play.'”

Leavitt experienced a turnaround after its Week 5 loss to Wells.

“We all kind of came into that film room and we all just kind of looked at each other and realized what was ahead of us and what we needed to do to really get things done from then on out,” senior Mason Henderson said.

Henderson, a slotback and defensive back, is the only current Hornet who was relied upon in the 2022 and 2023 championship games. He said the team matured quickly after that meeting. Habits improved in the classroom and on the sideline, and then soon after on practice field, which translated to gamedays.

Sophomore Landon Marquis (72 of 117 passing, 1,151 yards, 10 TDs, 3 INTs; 349 rushing yards, 2 TDs) has grown more comfortable at quarterback; Henderson (53 carries, 568 yards, 8 TDs; 25 catches, 437 yards, 5 TDs) and Brody Poland (592 scrimmage yards, 6 TDs) are versatile in space; and Randan Hutchinson (121 carries, 896 yards, 10 TDs) is a powerful runner.

The Hornets, on a five-game winning streak, average 35 points and boast the best defense in Class C with 9.7 points allowed.

“We have a lot of confidence in them, and I think they have a lot of confidence in us,” Hathaway said about his young roster. “I think that puts their mind at ease each week, if they just focus on the things that we’re telling them, and they do those things, then usually we turn out pretty successful.”

In Cumberland, the Rangers have their bright-lights experience. But they know it’s not about the past anymore.

“You can’t ever underestimate anybody,” King said. “Just because you beat somebody once, or you think you should win, doesn’t mean that you’re not going to get their best game every week. And that was kind of the message we had at the end of the year.”