FARMINGTON — Goals have been hard to come by for Mt. Blue in the second half of the season, particularly on set plays.

So when Mackenzie Conlogue found the back of the net off a set a little more than nine minutes into Wednesday’s KVAC tilt with Lewiston, the Cougars got a shot of confidence that made them tough to beat.

Makenzie Thompson complemented Conlongue’s goal with one of her own in the second half as Mt. Blue picked up an important crossover win over Lewiston, 2-0, at Prescott Field.

Conlogue beat Lewiston goalie Kenzi Masselli to a pass over the defense and lofted her bid over Masselli’s head and inside the far post at 9:15 of the first half to give the Cougars (6-5-1) the only goal they would need.

“I was just ready for the kick to come and when they played it, I anticipated it,” Conlogue said. “The goalie was on (the bench) side, so I shot it to other side. We have a difficult time scoring sometimes, so it got us going.”

Mt. Blue tilted the field to its offensive end throughout by clogging the middle and keeping Lewiston (4-8) from executing its triangular passing game. The Cougars, who were shut out in three straight games late last month, outshot the Blue Devils, 17-4.

“I knew they had a good goalie coming in and I think scoring on the set piece was important for us,” Mt. Blue coach Fred Conlogue said. “It gave them a lot of confidence going into the second half.”

Lewiston changed to a 4-4-2 in the second half and got some pressure early, but Mt. Blue was still able to seize momentum with more quality scoring chances.

“The big thing we were trying to do is use the width of the field, because playing down the middle was to their strength,” Lewiston coach Butch Dow said. “The girls couldn’t get adjusted to going to the outside of the field. I think that’s what hurt us was not being able to get the ball to the width, because when we did get it wide, we were able to come down in their half of the field.”

It helped the Cougars that they have finally gotten almost completely healthy and were able to substitute liberally throughout the game.

“What I was really excited about was all of the girls played really well. I was able to use a lot of girls today, which is really important this time of year, to have that kind of depth and confidence,” Fred Conlogue said.

Mt. Blue narrowly missed doubling its lead a little over two minutes into the second half when Marina West passed to Conlogue as she split the defense 10 yards in front of the net. But Conlogue’s one-timer went wide of the far post. A short time later, Emily Ramsey’s bid was disallowed because of an offsides call.

The Cougars took advantage of poor Devils’ defense for the second goal 13:15 into the second half. Masselli thwarted West with an excellent diving deflection to her right, only to have Thompson punch in the rebound with the goalie on the ground.

“I was ready for the rebound and I just kind of hit it with something. I’m not really sure what,” Thompson said.

“We’ve never seen them before, so it was a little intimidating because we didn’t know what they were like,” she added. “To beat someone that we’ve never seen before was really big.”

“We only play them once during the season and those crossover games are very important,” Fred Conlogue said. “That’s what has got us a little bit ahead of the teams that we play twice right now, so that was good points for us today. We’d like to finish strong and either get a home playoff prelim game or maybe even slip into the sixth spot.”

Lewiston, meanwhile, is currently on the outside looking in for the Eastern A playoffs. They have two more games — against Oxford Hills on Friday and Brunswick next Tuesday — to move up in the Heals.

“We’re doing better than we did last year, which is good. But we’re hoping for playoffs, because I think we have the skill,” Dow said. “I still think we have the opportunity if we beat Oxford Hills and if we can beat Brunswick, we may get the last slot.”