FALMOUTH – Mountain Valley has so badly bent the curve by which Western Class B football victories are graded that a 42-7 flattening of Falmouth looks positively pedestrian.

Tough to roll the naked eyes, though, at a Friday night performance in which the Falcons never punted, forced four turnovers and outgained their host by a two-to-one margin.

“I’m frustrated for the second week in a row with the discipline and the penalties,” said Mountain Valley coach Jim Aylward. “But Falmouth is good. I have no shame in admitting that.”

Good enough to keep the game tied 7-7 into the second quarter and drive to the Mountain Valley 25-yard line in pursuit of the unexpected, even unthinkable lead.

Then Matt Laubauskas intercepted a pass in the right flat and returned it 40 yards. And that’s when Falmouth (4-3) learned how quickly life can unravel against Mountain Valley (7-0).

Cameron Kaubris located Travis Ruff behind the Yachtsmen’s secondary for a 38-yard touchdown on the next play. Mountain Valley scored two more TDs in the final 1:43 of the half – a brilliant 62-yard catch-and-run by Justin Staires and a 1-yard Laubauskas plunge – to create a 28-7 cushion.

“They’re probably the best team we’ve played so far, without a doubt,” said Ruff, who also caught a 45-yard TD pass from Staires in the third quarter and finished with five receptions for 131 yards. “They hit hard.”

Staires accounted for 181 all-purpose yards as a passer, runner and receiver, but Falmouth contained him to 17 carries for 88 yards on the ground.

Kaubris was 8-of-11 for 163 yards through the air. Falmouth countered with Stefano Mancini, who dodged a dogged Falcons pass rush all night and completed 17-of-34 for 161.

“All week we were thinking run, run, run, so we were kind of ready to get up on the line of scrimmage. They came out and spread us out. They had a good game plan. We couldn’t stop that at first, but we adjusted.”

Matt Duka and Tyler Mason both intercepted Mancini. Duka and Christian Durland also teamed up to force a special teams fumble, leading to the Falcons’ final TD of the first half.

Jacob Hickey and Kyle Richard sparked the Falcons’ defense with a sack apiece.

“That was definitely tough. Wicked tough,” said Staires. “We weren’t prepared for them to come out like that at the start. I’m not going to say we came out flat, but they figured us out early. They figured out what they wanted to do on us, and they executed it.”

Mountain Valley surged to its usual early advantage with a businesslike opening drive. Ruff’s 20-yard catch and Staires’ 18-yard run behind a crunching Laubauskas block set up a 6-yard rush by Staires with 6:23 remaining in the first quarter.

Mancini used three different receivers and converted both a third down and a fourth down to weave the Yachtsmen’s response. He concluded Falmouth’s tying march with a 1-yard sneak.

“We thought they were going to be a physical team. We’d seen them. They’re big. They’ve thrown the ball probably eight, nine times a game,” Aylward said. “I think they saw we played mostly man coverage all year, and they were running guys and crossing them. We had to go back to poor, old zone defense.”

It was Staires who delivered the most dramatic catch of the evening on third-and-19 with Mountain Valley nursing a 13-7 lead.

Staires leaped high for a slightly underthrown ball between Falmouth defenders Matt Beaton and Caleb Bowden, squirmed away as they collided and eased the final 30 yards into the end zone.

Tom Puiia added a 2-yard TD run and an extra point in the fourth quarter for the Falcons.

Mountain Valley confronts its three closest pursuers in ascending order to conclude the regular season. Third-place York is next week. Fellow unbeaten Cape Elizabeth follows on Halloween night.

“The next couple of weeks we’ve got our hands full,” Ruff said.