FARMINGTON — Mt. Blue High School coach Jim Aylward can take comfort in knowing he can count on his defense to pick up the slack when the Cougars’ offense stalls.
Mt. Blue’s defense came through when the Nokomis Warriors made any sudden moves in a Class B football game Friday night at Caldwell Field.
And when the Cougars’ offense came around late in the second half, Mt. Blue had no problem cruising to a 24-0 victory over Nokomis.
“Of course, we didn’t finish drives. We didn’t play as well as we could have, but defensively we finished,” Aylward said. “Did our kids play defense tonight! We kept at it.
“There was a couples minutes where we started shirt-grab tackling, but after that, we settled down and played some really good defense. When we do sputter on offense, we should be able to turn to our defense. Tonight we could, so I am real happy for the kids.”
Every time the Warriors got something going, Mt. Blue’s defense was right around the corner to greet Nokomis with a tackle or an interception.
With defense pulling more than its fair share, Mt. Blue’s offense broke through in the second half, scoring three touchdowns in under four minutes.
Mt. Blue’s first touchdown came with 3:39 left in the first half. The Cougars got the ball at 39 and moved to the 48 on several rushes.
That’s when Ethan Andrews sent his long pass, 52 yards to be exact, and found Sean Testa open. Testa delivered, but the Cougars’ conversion failed. Nonetheless, they were up by six points.
The Cougars were now on a roll.
Sean Testa came through on defense and intercepted a Nokomis pass at the 28, and Mt. Blue moved to the 38, where Nate Everett bolted from the pack and scored a 62-yard touchdown with 1:04 left in the first half.
The Cougars came up big again on defense, with Makao Thompson making the next interception at the 45 and running it back to the 3 where he was knocked out bounds. Thompson finished the job when he rushed in from the 3 for a TD with 25 seconds left. Mt. Blue (2-4) led 18-0 going into halftime.
Just for good measure, the Cougars scored again late in the third quarter when Noah Carlton scored on a 1-yard run. The conversion failed, but the Cougars could wait out the Warriors for the entire fourth quarter.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
