AUBURN – If there was any doubt in the mind of Art Trask Friday night, there was none in his foot.

“I was thinking I’ve just got to do this for my team,” said the senior kicker from Mt. Blue. “We drove down the field this far. I might as well finish it.”

Trask had never kicked a field goal in a football game before, but put an exclamation point on the Cougars’ game-ending drive. His boot from 38-yards had plenty of distance to lift Mt. Blue to a thrilling 23-20 victory over Edward Little.

“I knew I had the foot to do it,” said Trask. “I just had to concentrate on kicking it straight.”

In practice, Trask hit nine out of 10 tries with the ball snapped at the 25. So Mt. Blue coach Gary Parlin hoped to just get to the 20 on the final drive.

After an EL possession stalled at the 26, the Cougars took over with just over two minutes left. The Cougars marched downfield and got inside the 30 with a pair of Joe Gilbert passes to Hal Robbins and Curtis Steele. At the 22, Parlin called for a handoff to Robbins.

“We were hoping to run a quick trap, but one guy got a piece of him,” said Parlin. “Otherwise, we might have run it down to the 10. If we got to the 20, we were definitely going to try it anyway.”

With the ball on the 21 and just seconds remaining, Trask lined up for the game-winner. Still bothered by an injured shoulder that had kept him out of action the last two weeks, Trask drilled the ball high and down the middle. Trask had played soccer until he got to high school. After trying freshman football, he played soccer as a sophomore but returned to football last year.

“I knew it was good from the time it left my foot,” said Trask.

So did just about everyone else at Walton Field.

It was a tough loss for EL (3-2), shooting for a third straight win. The Red Eddies had plenty of chances in the fourth quarter but saw each drive stall.

“We haven’t played four quarters, yet,” said EL coach Darren Hartley. “Last week, we didn’t play the third quarter and let Skowhegan come back and pound us. Tonight, we didn’t play major blocks of the entire second half.”

EL had taken the lead just before the half when Cody Goddard came in at quarterback while Troy Barnies lined up at receiver. He lofted a high pass for Barnies in the left corner of the end zone. Barnies out-jumped a defender to haul in the pass for a 20-14 lead with 21 seconds left.

“Great athletes make great plays,” said Hartley. “We had Cody come off the bench. He has a nice arm. We maximized protection, and we just let a great athlete go up there and see if they could stop it.”

Mt. Blue (3-2), playing without defensive leader Justin Lowe and offensive catalyst Mike Toothaker, struggled to produce the kind of drives it had in the first half. Midway through the fourth quarter, though, Mt. Blue had the ball moving and finished off a 77-yard drive when Gilbert dove in from the 1 with 6:51 left. Trask’s extra point was blocked, leaving the score tied, 20-20.

EL had the chance to produce the winning drive and got down to the 19 with a nice 27-yard run from Chris Ringer. A pair of penalties pushed them backwards, and EL turned the ball over on downs on the 26.

“We had our chances a couple of times to put them away,” said Hartley. “We thought we had a good feel for them in the second half. We didn’t put them away. In the end, the better team won with a great athlete that stuck it through from almost 50.”

Mt. Blue took a 7-0 lead with a drive on the first possession. Gilbert scored from the 11. EL came right back and answered with a Jon Demers 3-yard run. A fumble on the kickoff was recovered by Ringer, and EL turned that into a 21-yard pass from Barnies to Sean Daigle for a 14-7 lead with 4:58 left in the opening quarter. Mt. Blue got a 13-yard run from Robbins to tie the game, 14-14, with 6:29 left in the half.