FARMINGTON — It was the kind of news that would shake most teams.

The Mt. Blue football team learned at halftime Friday night that standout senior JT Williams was out with a knee injury. He was done for the game and maybe longer.

Instead of breaking them, the news solidified the Cougars. Mt. Blue rallied around the cause and came from behind to beat Messalonskee 14-7 with a gusty second-half performance.

“I’m very proud of these kids,” Mt. Blue coach Jim Aylward said. “We lost JT in the first half. We didn’t play well last week. We started questioning ourselves. I know we have a meat-grinder schedule, but we’re going to be happy about this win. This was a huge win for us. It shows what our potential is.”

Williams had already scored a touchdown and rushed for 63 yards on 10 carries. He’d also made a number of stupendous plays on defense. As the half ended, Williams was having his left knee examined. He was told that he’d have to wait until Monday to learn the severity. He spent most of the second half on crutches on the sidelines.

“It was next man up,” junior receiver Nate Pratt-Holt said. “We knew we had to play hard if we were going to win that game. JT is a great player. It’s always going to hurt losing him, but we know we’ve got  great athletes on this team.”

It was Pratt-Holt that scored the winning touchdown, diving for a catch for a 13-yard scoring play early in the third.

From there, Mt. Blue (2-1) rode its defense. The Cougars had already made a pair of red zone stops in the first half, including a goal line stand. In the second half, Mt. Blue held the Eagles to just 72 yards on three possessions in the second half.

“Defensively, I’m really proud,” Aylward said. “Messalonskee runs the wing-T as well as anyone. The kids just played their rear ends off.”

Jack Bernatchez led Messalonskee (1-2) with 148 yards on 19 carries but much of that yardage came in the first half. The Eagles were plagued by penalties on the final two drives.

“Every time we had big plays, we made a mistake,” Messalonskee coach Brad Bishop said. “When you have penalties at big crucial times, you can’t win football games.”

One of those mistakes came on the opening kickoff in the second half. Mt. Blue caught the Eagles with an onside kick. The Cougars recovered and that set up the game-winning drive.

“We knew we had to try something,” said Aylward, who noted that it was a suggestion by kicker Anthony Franchetti since Mt. Blue had been aware the Messalonskee might have been vulnerable in the middle. “One of the senses I got was that the kids were down at halftime. We heard that JT was out. We felt like we had to do something. It was like someone had deflated us. I just felt it was going to be one of those players where if we could pull it off, it could change the momentum. At that point, you just try anything. When you lose a leader like JT and a performer like him, you’ve got to do anything you can to win a ballgame.”

Mt. Blue recovered the ball at the Messalonskee 45 and drove the ball downfield. Alex Gilbert (38 yards on 11 carries) and Christian Whitney helped shoulder the load in the running game in Williams’ absence. Quarterback Ryan Pratt stepped up as well, completing five of eight passes for 53 yards and rushing for 23 yards.

“We just knew it was the next man up,” Pratt-Holt said. “That’s what we’ve been saying all year.”

Pratt hooked up with Whitney on one fourth down play to keep the drive going. Then on four-and-four from the 13, Pratt found Pratt-Holt in the end zone. He dove for the catch. It took a moment for the officials to rule it complete, but they ultimately did.

“It was just a great throw and a great job by my line,” Pratt-Holt said. “I have to give props to my teammates. I just laid out for it as much as I could.”

Messalonskee argued that it should have been incomplete.

“Evidently we have bad eyes on our side,” Bishop said. “The ball bounced off the ground. He trapped it.”

Messalonskee got the ball back three times the rest of the way. Mt. Blue made the stops and won the battle of field position. A blocked punt by Cody Gould helped that cause as well.

“Although we didn’t finish anything off in the fourth quarter, we really dictated who had the ball and the field position with our offense,” Aylward said. “That’s all you look for.”

Messalonskee’s best drive in the second half came on its final possession. The Eagles got the ball with 5:28 left at the 22. They got past midfield but a motion penalty and a pass thrown from beyond the line of scrimmage backed them up. Messalonskee’s try on fourth down from its own 35 went incomplete. Mt. Blue was able to kill the clock from there.

Mt. Blue took the lead with 3:03 left in the first quarter when Williams took it in from the 4. Messalonskee came right back with a 66-yard run by Bernatchez. That score with 2:04 left in the quarter made it 7-6.

The Eagles had two prime chances to add to the lead. Mt. Blue first stuffed them at the goal line  when quarterback Jake Dexter tried a pair of dives. Then the Cougars stopped Messalonskee at the 5. Bernatchez was taken down for a loss on fourth-and-one.

“It was a great win, a great job and effort by the whole team,” said Pratt-Holt. “It’s really nice, especially since it’s the home opener this year. It’s a really great win.”

kmills@sunjournal.com