WESTBROOK — Sometimes you hit. Sometime you get hit.

On Friday night, the Mountain Valley football team was the latter. The Falcons took a rare opening-night beating at the hands of Westbrook in a humbling 30-0 loss.

The Blue Blazes built an early 14-0 lead and never looked back. Westbrook held the Falcons to just one first down in the first half and stymied the Mountain Valley offense.

“We were talking about it early on, that we needed to set the tempo,” said Ben Grant, Westbrook’s senior back. “We needed to be the first one to get that hit. We did. We really put it to them.”

Grant finished with two touchdowns and 151 yards rushing on 14 carries. Westbrook outgained the Falcons 513 to 123 in total yards.

Mountain Valley coach Jim Aylward refused to take questions following the game. He made some reference to preseason predictions and stormed off the field.

“You look at last year’s records and then decide who the state champions are going to be,” said Aylward. “Come watch our practices some time. We’ve known where we are. Thanks for all that pressure on the kids.”

Mountain Valley was without back Matt Hoise because of disciplinary reasons. Back Colin Merrill and guard Ryan Stickney were injured during the game and didn’t return to action.

Westbrook proved to be more physical early and the Falcons took much of the first half to respond.

Cale Bollig added two touchdowns and 101 yards rushing on 16 carries while Collin Joyce added 79 yards on nine tries. Mountain Valley was led by  Brett Beauchesne with 55 yards on 14 carriers.

The Falcons best offensive threat came in the first half when the game was scoreless. Aaron Benson intercepted a pass around the Falcons’ 22 and had some daylight to run. He fumbled and Mountain Valley recovered, but the Falcons never truly got sight of the end zone again.

On its next possession, Westbrook marched down the field and finished it off with a Grant plunge in from the 1 with 10:09 left in the half.

“I owe a lot of that to the line,” said Grant, who had 23 yards rushing on that drive. “

Westbrook made it 13-0 with 6:15 left in the half when Grant broke one for 65 yards.

“I just bumped it outside and got a nice stiff arm on the guy,” said Grant. “I just took the corner and was thankful that I’ve got speed.”

The Falcons picked up some intensity late in the first half. Mountain Valley started to hit harder and played better defensively. The Falcons stopped a Westbrook threat late in the half, stuffing a drive at the 4 as time expired.

The Falcons couldn’t rally in the second half. Jacob Theriault picked off a pass in the end zone to nix another Westbrook threat to start the half. Mountain Valley didn’t get its second first down of the game until 6:34 remained in the third quarter. After gaining just 26 yards in the first half, the Falcons managed 97 in the second.

With 33 seconds left in the third, Bollig took it in from the 4 for a 22-0 lead. Then had added a run from the 3 in the fourth to complete the scoring.

“Our point of emphasis was to answer whatever they did,” said Grant. “We had to push back.”

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