Four games into the season, having only one football to distribute among a locker room full of playmakers doesn’t look like a handicap for Mt. Blue.

In fact, maybe it helps. When the law of averages and the etiquette of blowouts dictate that a proud player only gets four or five touches per game, his determination to take advantage of each one probably increases.

Mt. Blue put five different players in the end zone Friday night in a 43-26 Eastern Class B victory over Gardiner. And that doesn’t include Cam Sennick or Chris Malone, the Cougars’ two leading receivers.

“We’ve got two or three guys that could be the featured guy with a lot of teams,” Mt. Blue coach Gary Parlin said.

Taking mostly shovel passes and inside handoffs from quarterback Jordan Whitney, Izaiha Tracy exploded for 119 yards with his 10 opportunities.

Berry rushed seven times for 59 yards and a touchdown. Nick Hilton rebounded from his first dropped pass of the year to grab a 30-yard TD pass. And Calan Lucas went the distance for the second straight week, covering 69 yards even after lining up in the wrong formation.

“All the weapons we have, not one of them has had a bad game yet,” Parlin said.

Mt. Blue next travels to Oceanside, the schools resulting from the merger of Rockland and Georges Valley, before its home showdown Oct. 7 against Leavitt .

Adding insult to injury

One-sided road losses and key injuries added up to a tough weekend for Oxford Hills and Spruce Mountain.

Oxford Hills fell 50-6 at Messalonskee and lost senior quarterback Logan Sanborn to a broken collarbone. Sanborn ranked fifth in PTC passing yardage before getting hurt.

The Vikings, who already started the night with many starters sidelined, watched Messalonskee fullback Sam Dexter score touchdowns on his first three carries of the game.

Missing star running back Bill Calden due to a shoulder sprain, Spruce saw its night go south in a hurry in a 48-0 loss at Wells.

Wells scored on its first three possessions and led 35-0 at halftime.

Calden rushed for more than 400 yards in Spruce’s first two Class B contests. The Phoenix fell to 1-3 with their third straight defeat.

The good news for Spruce? Playoff hopes are still very much alive. After a brutal first-half schedule, the Phoenix now face Gray-New Gloucester, Lake Region and Marshwood. All three were winless entering the past weekend.

Special announcement

Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway wasn’t pleased with the Hornets’ kickoff coverage in a 56-6 win over Belfast in Week 2, so he announced he would be holding open auditions for the “bomb squad” the next two weeks in practice.

“We told them we needed to be better on kickoffs. Belfast torched us so bad,” Hathaway said. “We kicked off a lot in that game and they were getting really good field position every time. We just felt like it needed to be an emphasis and we worked on it pretty hard the last couple of weeks.”

The emphasis on kickoffs is understandable given the Hornets already eclipsed 200 points scored for the season in Friday’s 68-12 win against Madison.

To give everyone a little extra incentive to try out for what is usually the least glamorous unit on the football team, Hathaway promised the coverage team would be introduced prior to the Madison game.

“We’re trying to build it up as something important,” Hathaway said. “We’re trying to make it a part of our defense. We don’t want to give the team the ball over the 40 (yard line).”

“We want them to be excited about it,” he added. “We’ve got some starters we like running down there who weren’t real excited about kickoff.”

Only four of the 11 players introduced Friday were regular starters. The rest were backups and JV players. And they were busy because the Hornets scored 48 points in the first half. Hathaway said he was satisfied with how they performed.

The second string coverage team took over in the second half and didn’t fare so well, giving up a 73-yard kick return to open the third quarter and another long return for a touchdown in the fourth.