FARMINGTON – One-nil is usually the beginning of a bad day for the Mt. Blue High School boys’ soccer team.

No matter how well the Cougars have played the last two years, giving up the initial goal has come back to haunt them every time. Mt. Blue hadn’t mustered anything more satisfying than a tie when seeing the opponent crack its goose egg on the scoreboard first.

‘Til Tuesday, that is. Mt. Blue answered Messalonskee’s opening salvo with four unanswered second-half goals in a crucial 4-1 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference victory.

“It feels amazing,” said co-captain Sam Mungin, one of four seniors to score a goal for the Cougars. “It feels so good. We had a dry spell for a couple of games, but we all knew this game we were going to take it.”

Zac Conlogue, Welly Ramsey and Ben Russell also connected for the Cougars (6-4-1), who didn’t feel they played up to their full potential since winning the first half of their home-and-home series with Waterville on Sept. 16.

Mt. Blue celebrated only a win and a tie in its previous five Eastern Class A starts.

“This is big. This is (Heal) points,” said Mt. Blue coach Joel Smith. “We’ve watched ourselves the last two weeks drop from fourth to sixth to eighth. We’ve seen the slide. We know what the losses have done. They knew, and they responded.”

The Cougars broke from their halftime huddle in the woods determined to keep the ball on the ground and attack. Conlogue made that approach pay off with the equalizer less than four minutes into the session.

Ramsey reached a 50-50 ball and rifled a pass at Mungin’s feet. Mungin had the choice to take advantage of a one-on-one confrontation with sophomore goaltender Andrew Wilson, but he dished left to Conlogue instead.

“I just kept running,” Conlogue said. “I saw the side of the net and put it in.”

Less than five minutes later, Ramsey’s foot produced the go-ahead heroics. This time, he eliminated the middle man and fired a 30-yard, turnaround blast past Wilson.

“Welly’s goal was amazing,” said Mungin. “That fired us up. That was a huge goal.”

Russell, Nick Lewis, Jamie Sawyer, Travis Robinson and Jordan Schanck took command of the defensive effort from there, short-circuiting several Messalonskee challenges until Mungin relieved the stress with his insurance goal.

Mungin followed his own shot after Wilson’s nifty dive to stop the initial try at 22:07. Russell cashed in another long, uncontested pass to cap the scoring with under three minutes to play.

Twelve seniors dominate the roster for a Mt. Blue squad that endured a .500 season and a preliminary round loss last October. Knocking off a team that reached the 2007 semifinals and entered this showdown ranked No. 3 in the region is a U-turn that ultimately could help the Cougars travel deep into the postseason.

“Since the Waterville game we won, we’ve just been struggling just to get that momentum going,” Smith said. “We felt we were one big win away from turning things around. I feel like this will help us.”

Devin Zamboni made 11 saves for the Cougars. The Eagles (6-2-2) couldn’t solve him after sophomore Cameron Douglas’ goal with 8:33 remaining in the first half.

“We just kept it going,” Mungin said. “We weren’t going to let down. Every single person on this team knew we had this game, through the entire game.”