TURNER — The loaded Leavitt Area High School football team forces opposing defenses to cover every inch of every yard on a gridiron.

Gardiner didn’t come close Friday night.

Jordan Hersom threw two touchdown passes to Ian Durgin and Jake Ouellette rushed for three scores to help the Hornets beat the Tigers 41-6 in the Pine Tree Conference Class B regular-season finale for both teams.

“Very frustrating,” Gardiner quarterback Dennis Meehan said. “We came in thinking we could play with them. We need to get back to work.”

The Hornets (8-0) wrapped up the top seed and home-field advantage in the PTC B playoffs. The Tigers (6-2) likely will host a quarterfinal game Oct. 28.

“We needed to play mistake-free football,” Gardiner coach Matt Burgess said, “and we didn’t.”

The Hornets tapped into their wealth of playmakers to make it a long evening for the visitors.

Ouellette rushed for 143 yards on 17 carries in just three quarters. Durgin rushed for 97 yards, while Hersom went for 82 on the ground. The senior quarterback also completed five of his eight passes for 119 yards.

“They are a big-play offense,” Burgess said.

Alonzo Connor rushed for a team-high 109 yards and a touchdown, although most of his damage came against the Leavitt junior varsity. Leavitt’s starting defense held Connor to a mere 62 yards.

“We did a good job of holding him down,” said Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway, who improved to 72-28 during his tenure. “It was a good win. In the playoffs, you want to be home. We have a routine at home that we all like to follow.”

The big play was routine for Leavitt on Friday.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Hornets exploded for three scores in the second to put the game out of reach.

Durgin opened the scoring with a 31-yard rush on the first play of the second quarter.

The Tigers were stopped on their ensuing possession and then attempted a fake punt from their own 37-yard line. The Tigers couldn’t convert, giving the Hornets excellent field position.

Two plays later, Ouellette scored from 6 yards out, and Leavitt was off and running.
It pushed ahead 21-0 when Ouellette rushed for a 9-yard touchdown with 3:10 left in the second quarter.

“We tried to catch them a couple times coming out of timeouts with the big play,” Hersom said. “We really spread the ball around. They really took the ball and ran with it.”

Things went from bad to worse for Gardiner in the second half.

Leavitt scored on its first possession, with Ouellette rushing for a 26-yard score. Dustin Moore kicked the extra point, and the Hornets were up 28-0.

The Tigers, meanwhile, struggled to generate much on offense. They had just 59 total yards of offense in the first half; 62 at the end of three quarters.

Leavitt finished with 511 yards of total offense.

“We have to get better,” said Meehan, who completed nine of his 18 passes for 99 yards.

Bill Stewart — 621-5640
bstewart@centralmaine.com

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