TURNER — After producing one second-half comeback Friday night, the Leavitt Hornets football team hoped it had another left in them.

Down 21-6 at the half, the Hornets rallied in the third quarter and took the lead, but found themselves behind in the fourth. Leavitt produced a scoring drive that got them close, but a conversion pass failed, allowing Marshwood to earn a hard-fought 29-28 win.

“Our kids came out at halftime with a good effort and good concentration,” Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway said. “We executed a lot better. We played a lot tougher up front, but we just fell a little short.”

It was a bounce-back win for the defending Class B state champs. The Hawks lost to Westbrook last week and then lost starting quarterback Jack Spear on the first possession to a shoulder injury. Marshwood also lost back Chris Sarzynski to an injury that had him leave the field in an ambulance late in the first half.

“I thought our backup quarterback (Cole McDaniel) did a nice job coming in and playing well and keeping us in the game,” Marshwood coach Alex Rotsko said. “We had kids that made plays on both sides of the ball. We gave up some big plays, but that’s kind of the nature of their offense. It was just a hard-fought game.”

Marshwood (3-1) took a 29-22 lead with 9:10 left in the game. Early in that drive, Leavitt had the Hawks backed up and facing second-and-16 on the 24. Zach Doyon broke one for 61 yards and a first down. Four players later, Doyon took it in from the 5 for the 29-22 lead. He added the conversion run as well. Doyon finished with three touchdowns while passing for another. He also had 225 yards rushing on 28 carries.

Leavitt’s next possession went nowhere and the Hornets attempt at a fake punt was nullified by a penalty. Marshwood took over with 7:27 left but couldn’t put the game away then. A pass on fourth-down-and-eight fell short, and Leavitt took over with 4:13 left.

The Hornets marched down the field and scored on a 35-yard strike from Levi Craig to Christian Callahan with 2:19 remaining. Leavitt went for the two-point conversion but Craig’s pass to Maxwell Green in the right corner of the end zone was too long. Marshwood finished out the game with runs by Doyon and a first down by McDaniel that clinched it.

“He ran hard all night,” Rotsko said of Doyon. “There was sometimes we didn’t have blocking, but he was still able to get positive yardage. He just kept his legs grinding, and he ran hard. He did a good job running the ball.”

Leavitt was down 21-6 at the half, but quickly turned the tide in the third quarter. John Rousseau caught a Craig pass for 47 yards with 11:20 left to cut the Marshwood lead to 21-14.

After the Hawks were stopped on their next possession, a punt snap sailed over the head of Holden Jackman. Leavitt recovered at the 24 and punched it in for the lead scored with 5:24 left. Craig plunged in from the 1 to give Leavitt the 22-21 lead.

“We’ve got to play better in the first half,” Hathaway said. “We haven’t executed well at the beginning of games and that hurt us tonight. We have to play better in the first quarter than we are.”

Leavitt threw two interceptions and fumbled the ball away once in the first half. That enabled the Hawks to build the 21-6 lead.

Marshwood marched the ball downfield on its first possession, converting a couple of fourth downs along the way. Though Spear got hurt late in the drive, McDaniel came in and hit Doyon on a 16-yard pass play with 7:01 for the 7-0 lead.

After an interception by Jonathan Stacy, Marshwood turned that into a 14-0 lead. Doyon hit Nick Tice on a 13-yard play with 9:47 left in the half. 

Leavitt answered with 4:21 remaining when Craig connected with Green on a 64-yard pass play to get within 14-6, but Marshwood took the next possession downfield for the score and 21-6 lead with 2:02 remaining. McDaniel hit Doyon on a 19-yard pass.

“Doyon is tough,” Hathaway said. “He had a lot of big runs that put us back in the hole.”

Leavitt threw for 206 yards while Marshwood had 82 yards passing and 328 yards on the ground.

“It was a win,” Rotsko said. “We’ll move on and try to get better next week.”

kmills@sunjournal.com