“Give us 30 more seconds, and who knows what happens,” Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway said.

But the Hornets only had one second left after Tim Albert spiked the ball at Westbrook’s 21-yard line. On Leavitt’s last chance Albert’s pass was intercepted by Westbrook’s Kyle Champagne to seal a 27-21 victory for the Blue Blazes.

Just to be in that position was a feat for the Hornets. They trailed 21-6 early in the third quarter, and 27-14 early in the fourth.

“I learned that we got a lot of heart, because when we got down two scores to start the second half, a lot of times a young, inexperienced will fold right there,” Hathaway said. “And especially with some of the injuries we had, we were scrambling there. We had a lot of freshman and sophomores on the field at the end of that game.

“For us to fight back, and have a shot on the last play to win it, I think says a lot about our guys’ character and their heart.”

Nemieceo Loureiro ran for 204 yards and three touchdowns for Westbrook. He also caught four passes for 41 yards and another score.

The Hornets defense stuffed the Blue Blazes in the first quarter, during which Loureiro was held to negative yardage.

That defensive dominance continued early in the second quarter, when a penalty and a sack left Westbrook with a third-and-36 from its own 25. The next play was a handoff to Loureiro, who looked to be stopped after a short gain, but managed to break through and score a 75-yard touchdown run.

“The line kept coming out blocking with me, and I was out,” Loureiro said.

He was tough to bring down the rest of the game.

His 8-yard TD catch gave the Blue Blazes a 27-14 lead a few minutes into the fourth quarter.

With starting quarterback Bryce Hudson on the sideline, Albert, the backup, led the Hornets down the field on the ensuing drive. It appeared Leavitt was about to stall at Westbrook’s 26, but Albert hooked up with D’Andre James for a 26-yard scoring strike on fourth-and-16. That cut the lead to 27-21.

The Hornets had a tough enough time stopping Loureiro and the Blue Blazes’ offense as it was. They didn’t need bad luck to conspire against them.

But it did. On the first play of the next drive, Westbrook quarterback Bailey Sawyer fumbled. He appeared to fall on it, but it squirted out of his grasp, and Leavitt appeared to jump on it. However, a whistle blew when Sawyer first jumped on the ball.

Due to the inadvertent whistle, the down was replayed. On the next play, Loureiro ran 38 yards down to the Hornets’ 19. Leavitt’s defense held on the next four plays to force a turnover on downs.

The Hornets took over at their own 22 with 3:24 remaining. Powered by a long run by Hunter Sirois and a fortunate pass interference on 3rd-and-long, Leavitt put itself at Westbrook’s 23 with 19 seconds left. Albert completed a short pass to Cole Morin, and then Albert spiked the ball quick enough to give the Hornets their last shot.

“We talked to the kids all week about perseverance, because things aren’t going to go smoothly for us all the time; we just got too many young bodies out there,” Hathaway said. “We’re going to keep getting better. I told them not too high with the highs, not too low with the lows, and they were pretty good about that tonight. They stuck right with it and they hung together.”