The Manchester Essex Hornets went into today's game hoping to clinch their football league title with a win.

But they ran into a team that had no intentions of absorbing its first loss.

ME's Ben Kekeisen returned a kickoff 72 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, and Jake Brown scored on a 4-yard pass from Alex Carr with just 1:18 to go, but unbeaten Whittier Tech of Haverhill otherwise stymied the high-powered Hornet offense from start to finish today and came away with a 30-16 win in their showdown for the Commonwealth Athletic Conference Large division crown at Manchester's Ed Field Field.

The win lifts Whittier, now a perfect 9-0 overall, to a record of 3-1 in the conference with one league game to go. Manchester Essex, which had run off seven straight wins after an opening-night non-league loss to Danvers, is now 3-1 in the league and 7-2 overall.

Kekeisen's run came on the kickoff following a 5-yard touchdown run by Whittier's Don Leighton. And Carr raced in for the Hornets' two-point conversion. But that only cut the Hornets' deficit to 24-8, and Whittier added another touchdown to nail down the victory before the late Carr-to-Brown TD pass.

A touchdown by Nate Allen with just 2:19 left had given Whitter an 8-0 first half lead, while a fumble recovery in the end zone in the third quarter put the visitors up 16-0 in the third.

For full coverage of today's game, look to Monday's print and online editions of the Gloucester Daily times and gloucestertimes.com.