WALES – Mt. Blue boarded the bus for its season opener with very little outdoors practice time under its belt and an unproven defense making its debut against some of the stiffest competition it will face in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B this season.

Getting lost en route from Farmington to Wales (via Brunswick) gave the Cougars a lot of time to either think about those potential weaknesses, or put them out of their minds.

They apparently chose the latter, because once they got their legs stretched out, there were no defects to be found.

Zac Conlogue and Justin Brooks tallied three goals apiece and Mt. Blue dominated the second half to take an 11-4 victory over Oak Hill.

“We’ve only been on grass for a week, so we were a little rusty and had some kinks to work out for the first quarter or two,” Mt. Blue coach James Black said. “Then we started transitioning well, our passing and catching improved and we got it together.”

Both teams showed the effects of opening day jitters, rust and an extra 39-minute wait for Mt. Blue to arrive and rush through warm-ups. It took 10 minutes for someone to finally break the ice, which Conlogue did to put the Cougars on top for good.

“We definitely weren’t ready at the beginning. We weren’t working the ball and we got no offensive production,” Conlogue said. “Then we started using the attack more and we started getting shots and got a little more relaxed.”

“They beat us twice last year, so it was good to get them back,” he added. “It’s good to see that we can score, because that was definitely a problem last year.”

Joe LeClair found the back of the net 45 seconds later, then added his second goal 39 seconds into the second quarter to give the Cougars a 3-0 cushion.

Tony Vattaso finally got the Raiders on the board for their first marker with 4:35 remaining in the first half, but Brooks needed just 21 seconds to shift the momentum back in Mt. Blue’s favor with his first goal.

Drew Jannelle drew Oak Hill back within two goals 1:45 before halftime, but that was as close as the Raiders would get. A third quarter tally by Travis Robinson and two more by Conlogue early in the fourth gave the Cougars a comfortable 7-2 cushion.

Mt. Blue outshot Oak Hill 16-5 in the second half. Ben Altmaier made a couple of excellent stops among his eight saves in net, but it was the revamped defense that truly shined.

The Cougars lost their top five defenders from last season. Sophomores Colt Miranda and Anthony Larrabee and junior Nick Watson stepped in Friday and denied and pressured Raider attackers, forcing numerous mistakes and dropped balls, knocking passes and shots down with their sticks and converting the ground balls into transition opportunities.

“All three of those starters went to camp this summer,” Black said. “They went to Syracuse. They spent time playing in the domes and leagues and they’ve really improved.”

“Our whole defense clicked. Altmaier did really well in goal,” Watson said. “The key was to get a lot of pressure, especially early in the game where you can set the tempo.”

Will Aranson tried to spark the Raiders by making it 7-3 with 7:23 to go, but Brooks again grabbed momentum back in the Cougars’ favor just 30 seconds later with a goal off a nice feed from Derek Rowe.

Nate Rolston scored Oak Hill’s final goal. Brandon Melville added two more goals for the Cougars, which could only consider what this season might hold in store if they get good directions to their road games.

“I think this shows if we get to a school early and can get ready, we could have a chance this year,” Watson said.