DIXFIELD – Things went smoothly a majority of the time for the Dirigo football team, but it discovered some mental adjustments need to be made for the upcoming playoffs.

Josh Palmer ran for two touchdowns and Spencer Ross returned two kicks for scores as the Cougars cruised to a 52-8 victory against undermanned Madison at Harlow Park.

Dirigo (8-1) jumped on top early and stayed in control by scoring four times to lead 27-0 midway through the second quarter. Quarterback Nic Crutchfield threw two touchdowns to Alex Miele.

The Cougars wanted to stay sharp because they will host Lisbon in a semifinal playoff game next Saturday.

“We started out fast,” Dirigo senior Aaron Fenstermacher said. “I think we knew it and lost our focus a little bit and found that we needed to get things back together.”

Madison (0-9) which suited up 15 players, delivered a shocker when Lucas Libby returned a kickoff to the Dirigo 19-yard line late in the first half. Three plays later, Libby scored on a keeper and Ivan Cobb rushed the conversion.

“We’ll spend time on it next week in practice,” Dirigo coach Doug Gilbert said regarding kickoff coverage. “I honestly don’t know what happened, there was nothing different in personnel.”

Dirigo received great field position when Keith Langervin made a bone-crushing tackle and Arik Fenstermacher recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff. Palmer (58 yards, 15 rushes) dove over from one yard and later added a five-yard TD just before halftime.

Lucas returned a kickoff into Cougar territory, but the defense held on a Mason Cote sack. Crutchfield connected with Miele for a 70-yard strike. The tandem struck again on an eight-yard TD.

“I just ran hard to get behind the secondary,” Miele said. “Tyler Chiasson gave a key block, and I knew if I could get inside, then I could go all the way.”

Ross returned two kicks for touchdowns for the second straight week. The breakaway runner picked up a punt and broke outside for a 70-yard TD. Ross then took the second-half kickoff, cut across the grain and ran by the coverage for a 75-yard TD.

Eric Bolduc booted a 40-yard field goal and made five extra points. Crutchfield scored on a 12-yard scramble.

The Cougars defense bent, but didn’t break with linemen Josh Henderson, Jared Bisson, Kyle Hutchinson, linebackers Aaron Fenstermacher, Mason Cote, Jake Dowland and Palmer.

“We were using a five- and six-man line,” Gilbert said. “But, we got hung up because Madison was big (right guard and tackle) on that side, so we had to refigure and revert back to our basic 44 lineup. It’s just something that we wanted to try.”