PORTLAND — When Tyler Vallee recovered a fumbled punt early in the second half, the Leavitt Hornets were winning the turnover battle and winning the football game.

That Wells miscue led to a Hornet touchdown and a 13-7 lead with just over 14 minutes remaining in Saturday’s Class B state championship.

Three turnovers by the Warriors had helped Leavitt’s cause, but mistakes by the Hornets in the final quarter returned the favor. After Wells had rallied to take the lead, the Hornets hampered their chances with a fumble and two turnovers in the final quarter. Leavitt finished with four turnovers in the game and a second straight state championship loss, 21-13.

“They made some good plays on defense,” said Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway. “They popped the ball loose on one of the fumbles. When we got to it, they knew we were going to throw. You have to fit the ball into some tight spaces. That’s hard. They made some good plays.”

Leavitt only had five offensive possessions in the entire second half. Three of those series’ ended in a turnover.

“When the other team has the ball a lot and wins the time of possession, you press a little bit offensively,” said Hathaway. “We may have done that. I thought we moved the ball pretty well the second half. We made some good adjustments and moved the ball, but we just didn’t score.”

Leavitt’s lone score followed up Vallee’s fumble recovery that led to a Jordan Hersom scoring run from the 3 with 2:24 left. That made it 13-7.

Wells answered right back with a lengthy drive that put the Warriors up 14-13 with 8:19 left in the game.

The Hornets had ample opportunity to rally but gave the ball away. On Leavitt’s next possession, Hersom dove up the middle and had the ball slip from his grip at the line of scrimmage. He couldn’t collect it and Doug McLean recovered for Wells.

“Those things happen in football,” said Hersom. “We just tried to rebound from it. I give a lot of credit to my teammates. They held me up. You have to give a lot of credit to Wells for capitalizing.”

The Leavitt defense kept the Hornets within reach. After stopping the Warriors on fourth-and-two from the 14, Leavitt got the ball back. On the first play, Hersom’s pass was picked off by Paul McDonough when the Leavitt receiver slipped.

“They have a great offense,” said McDonough. “Nobody said we could stop them. All the newspapers said they were too much for us. We came out and proved it. We had doubters all season but now the doubters are gone.”

Wells scored with 2:15 left to up the lead to 21-13. Leavitt even got favorable field position, starting at its own 32. The Hornets moved the ball downfield and got as close to the 26. With Wells in the prevent defense, Hersom didn’t have a lot to throw to and Gavin Snapp sealed it with a pick on second-and-eight.

“Usually in a big game like this turnovers kind of dictate the game,” said Hersom. “They were the momentum swings. We had a lot of turnovers and they did a good job capitalizing.”

In the first half, it was Wells that was hindered by the mistakes. The Warriors had a pair of lengthy drives that were halted by fumbles.

McDonough put one on the ground after Wells had reached the 18. Leavitt’s Jake Posik made the recovery. Leavitt turned that into a tying touchdown with 10:53 left in the half.

“We controlled the ball but we just kept not getting in,” said Wells coach Tim Roche. “We were scared to death that we weren’t going to be able to do it.”

On Wells’ next possession, the Warriors got down inside the 18 again but Louis DiTomasso lost the handle after getting a first down. Jack Griffin made the recovery for the Hornets.

“We were lucky in the first half with a couple of turnovers,” said Hersom. “They were kind of down on our end of the field. So we couldn’t do much with them. Obviously it was a plus for us because they didn’t score.”

Leavitt had a chance to score late and got down to the 25 after moving the ball 54 yards. Joe Spinelli picked off Hersom in the end zone late in the half.

“I was wondering when we were finally going to get a break,” said Roche. “We finally got it. Spinelli’s pick at the end of the half, that’s going to be forgotten probably in the scheme of things, but that was a big play for us.”

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