For a few moments there was some confusion across Olmsted field. With 1:47 to play – and the game was tight, really tight; like, 22-21 tight – the Blazes (and their coaches, and their fans) thought they’d come up with an onside kick and ideal field position. So they went nuts.

But all too soon, the Hornets, and the rest of their contingent, went nuts as well. Turned out, the officials had reversed their initial call – or maybe they’d cleared up a simple misunderstanding; either way, Leavitt now had a season-opening road win in the bag.

Naturally, Blazes head coach Jeff Guerette was disappointed with the turn of events. But he reacted with an even keel.

“It’s hard for me to see,” he said of the onside kick, and the mountain of bodies that quickly fell on it. “It’s on the other side of the field. The refs are just doing their job.”

Despite the loss, Guerette praised his boys’ grit. They’d come back, after all, against an intimidating opponent. The Hornets were the 2013 Class C State Champs, and the 2014 Runners-up.

“Down 22-7 and they could’ve disappeared,” Guerette said of his squad. “To fight back and be within a near onside-kick of having the ball and a chance to win is a really good job. I was happy for them.

“Leavitt’s used to winning. They have high expectations. They elevated their game in the third quarter. It took us a little while to respond to it, but the thing I was proud of was that our kids did fight back.”

It took more than a quarter of deadlocked defensive action – including multiple Blazes sacks (one by John Gilson and another by Zack Hutchins) of Leavitt QB Levi Craig – but Westbrook actually grabbed the first lead. After gaining control on a Leavitt punt early in the second, the Blazes found a chink in their opponent’s armor, and scored in just three plays.

QB Bailey Sawyer began the series with two short keepers to inch Westbrook from their 26 to their 37, then launched a long ball up the left sideline to his gridiron other half, wide receiver Bailey Ryan. Ryan reeled in the pass, easily ditched his coverage and jetted into the end zone for a 63-yard TD. He added the PAT as well, putting the Blazes up 7-0.

Westbrook managed to hold Leavitt silent into the break, even saved a score late in the half with a Hamza Hanfi interception of a Craig pass over the middle into the end zone. In the third quarter, however, Leavitt returned to the field ready to sting.

Craig grounded the drive in three rapid-fire beauts to Max Green: a 10-yarder up the middle, a 14-yarder left and, finally, a 25-yarder into the end zone that would’ve resulted in a TD – if only another Hornet hadn’t incurred a holding penalty that nullified the score and backed the team up to their own 41.

They wouldn’t be denied, though, and earned back almost all the lost distance in one weaving run by Hunter Sirois, through the middle and up the left side. Craig himself crossed the goal line eventually, on a four-yard keeper; he then found slot receiver D’Andre James for a successful two-point conversion and the 8-7 lead.

Leavitt surged ahead from there, adding eight more late in the third and another six early in the fourth, for 22-7. The Blazes had fallen back on their heels, and little time remained for them to regain their footing.

They did, though, and methodically chewed, in the next eight minutes, through 14 points of the Hornets’ 15-point advantage. Miece Loureiro began the follow-up series to Leavitt’s third TD with a spectacular runback, roughly to midfield, and then Loureiro, Steve Shackley, Sawyer and Ryan combined to shuttle the ball all the way to third and goal on the Hornets’ two, where Sawyer soon slipped it over the line for 22-13. Critically, though, the team’s two-point attempt missed its mark.

“It was a pretty good high school football game,” said Guerette. “People got their money’s worth tonight.”

Westbrook then tried an onside kick, but the ball skittered out of bounds, and Leavitt came away with it. They immediately fumbled, however, and the Blazes recovered. Sawyer led the squad through the ensuing series, narrowly securing two first downs on two hard-fought keepers before connecting with Ryan for another TD, this time for 18 yards over the middle. Sawyer found Hanfi on a successful two-point conversion to pull Westbrook within one.

But then came the second onside kick, the one Leavitt came away with after the reversed call, and with just 1:47 remaining, the Hornets had to do very little, besides kneel the clock away, to capture the W. They’d edged the Blazes out of a comeback victory to remember.

It’s no secret that the Sawyer-Ryan connection is central to Westbrook’s arsenal this fall. But it’s not their only option for moving the ball by any means, which Guerette stressed:

“We’re trying to be balanced. Bailey Ryan is one of the better receivers in the league, so we’ve got to have a commitment to getting him the ball.

“They connected on a beautiful pass early, and they scored again late. They’re going to be a key weapon for us this year. But we want to be as balanced as we can.”

“Hey, if you’re going to spend a bunch of guys on Bailey Ryan, you’re going to open up other people. We’re more than just Bailey and Bailey. We’ve got some kids that can run the ball. If you’re going to overplay one guy, I think we’ve got answers.

“That’s on coaches, to make sure we have answers for that stuff.”

Westbrook next faces off with Falmouth, another home matchup, scheduled for this coming Friday, the 11th, at 7 p.m. Leavitt welcomes Morse on the same night, at the same time.

The Blazes’ offensive line and the Hornets’ defensive line charge at one another after an early snap in Westbrook on Friday night.Westbrook defensive end Zack Hutchins gets a hand on Leavitt QB Levi Craig; Craig would soon go down, sacked by a cadre of determined Blazes.Westbrook QB Bailey Sawyer fights away from a grabby Leavitt defender.Westbrook’s Philip Stearns is driven out of bounds by Leavitt’s Max Green after grabbing a pass from QB Bailey Sawyer and gaining 16 up the right side.Westbrooker Bailey Ryan pulls in a pass from QB Bailey Sawyer, leaves Leavitt defender Max Green on the turf and heads toward the end zone. Ryan’s 63-yard TD put the Blazes on top of the visiting Hornets 6-0.Westbrooker Miece Loureiro can’t quite keep his fingertips on a long pass up the middle from QB Bailey Sawyer.