New London — At halftime, instead of the New London High School football team heading to the locker room as it usually does, coach Johnny Burns had his team remain on Cannamela Field.

“It’s like in the beginning we had our heads down after so many plays that we couldn’t do anything,” senior running back/linebacker Marvelt Fleurijeune said.

“So our coach, he told us not to go back into the locker room, we got to lock in out here. Everybody has to focus. Just like that, we all knew we had to do something, we’ve got to make sure we all understand what he’s saying and hear what he’s got to say. ... We stood right on the corner (of the field).”

The Whalers, who trailed 12-0 at the time, came back for the 14-12 victory over Weaver on Saturday afternoon, getting a game-clinching interception by defensive back Zuri Craig with 2.9 seconds remaining and Weaver on the New London 8-yard line.

The Whalers also got an interception by Fleurijeune with 51.2 seconds remaining in the third quarter that set up their first touchdown of the game, a 24-yard run by Chris Jones that, combined with the extra point from Jairo Ruiz, pulled New London within 12-7.

And New London, still awaiting the return of Johnny Burns III at running back after Burns was injured earlier this season, had two players rush for more than 100 yards in the victory, with Jones carrying 16 times for 118 yards and two touchdowns and Fleurijeune rushing 11 times for 103 yards.

The Whalers are 2-3, while Weaver fell to 0-5.

“It was definitely an opportunity to put your head down,” said Burns, the New London coach, of the first half, in which the Whalers only had the ball twice as Weaver sustained a couple of time-consuming drives.

“We play enough young guys to have that happen. For us, it was trying to do our best just to manage the morale and what the realistic expectations are. We knew (Weaver was) a scrappy team; if you assist them with opportunities, you could have to pay for it and we did that.”

Weaver’s first drive of the game, although it didn’t result in points, took 8 minutes off the clock. New London then had the ball for just 2:41 before losing a fumble and setting up Weaver’s first touchdown, a 15-yard pass from quarterback Kalil Barno (14-for-36, 240 yards, 1TD) to Jason Sutton.

The Whalers turned the ball over on downs on their next series, getting to the Weaver 19, and Weaver put together an 81-yard drive that was capped on a 1-yard run by Barno to make it 12-0 with 25 seconds remaining in the half.

New London was intercepted on its first two series of the second half, but with Weaver throwing from its own 28-yard line, Fleurijeune stepped in front of a pass from Barno and the Whalers scored one play later to bring a suddenly different feel to the game.

New London, getting more pressure on the quarterback Barno in the second half, then forced Weaver to punt, launching a 98-yard Whalers drive to give them the lead with 7:57 remaining in the game.

Fleurijeune started that drive with an 18-yard run from the New London 2 to the 20 and Jones took the ball 11 yards on the next play. Jones scored from the 35-yard line on a pitch to the right on which he cut back to the left, getting into the end zone as he lunged for the left pylon.

Ruiz’s kick made it 14-12.

“I just want to say thank you to my linemen, my receivers, my fullback in front of me,” Jone said. “I did my job to follow up my blocks.”

New London couldn’t put the game away, however, even as it took possession with 1:41 remaining in the game. The Whalers ran the ball to Fleurijeune on second down but a holding call stopped the clock. They lost four yards on a third-down run to Jones, putting the ball at the Weaver 41, but Burns said later he didn’t feel comfortable punting due to Weaver’s aggressiveness.

Weaver got the ball back with 1:11 to play — “It’s not the way we draw it up,” Burns said, “We certainly didn’t want to leave that time we left” — and thanks to a pair of long passes from Barno to Sutton, one for 35 yards and one for 22, got the ball to the New London 8-yard-line.

Barno spiked the ball to stop the clock on first down, then threw an incompletion, setting up the third-down play which Craig intercepted.

“Both (receivers) were going to cross, so I just came up and picked the ball up,” said Craig, so elated he mistakenly ran out of bounds with time still remaining. “I already knew what they were doing. I just read it. ... No. I wasn’t nervous at all. I knew we were going to make a big play.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com