By Kalle Oakes,Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – Football players confessing that they care about style points rank low on the coolness scale with suggesting tofu as a pre-game meal or requesting Barry Manilow as the locker room mood music.

Still, Mt. Blue wasn’t too shy to admit that its inner child was wounded by whispering around the Pine Tree Conference: Yeah, you’re undefeated, but …

“Our defense was awesome last year,” said senior quarterback Mason Barker, “and I think this year’s defense took it to heart that people were thinking they weren’t that good.”

Mt. Blue silenced the show-mes with a 21-0 squelching of Messalonskee in the rain Friday night at Caldwell Field.

With their first shutout of the season, the Cougars (6-0) appeared to clinch an Eastern Class A playoff berth, Crabtree points willing, and have put themselves in position to wrap up home field advantage throughout the post-season if they beat Bangor and Skowhegan the next two weeks.

Alex Johnson and Justin Lowe each recovered a fumble to lead Mt. Blue, which held Messalonskee to 215 yards in handing the Eagles their third straight loss.

Barker (15-of-23 for 129 yards) and the Mt. Blue offense were effective as ever out of the shotgun formation, overcoming conditions that devolved from playable to miserable as the evening progressed.

John Moloney caught seven passes for 75 yards, including a 21-yard TD late in the second quarter to give the Cougars a two-touchdown lead at the half.

On the ground, Mike Toothaker rushed 19 times for 118 yards and two scores, helping Mt. Blue dominate time of possession. The Cougars committed no turnovers. There were no fumbled or bobbled snaps, either.

“They kept throwing balls from the sideline, so we were able to have a bone-dry ball on just about every play,” Barker said.

Although it was no day at the beach, Mt. Blue prepared as such and kept its game balls protected in an Igloo cooler.

The Cougars had additional room for dry towels and pigskins in the Subaru Outback behind their bench. Coach Gary Parlin parked it there during the afternoon, anticipating that the drizzle might turn to driving rain earlier than it did.

Barker had no trouble pinpointing the ball to Moloney on quick outs to the right flat or delivering shovel passes to Hal Robbins.

He worked in the deep ball, too, while weather permitted, hitting Art Trask with a 32-yard strike on the first play of a drive to set up Moloney’s TD grab.

Toothaker took advantage of a short field to give Mt. Blue an early 7-0 edge. Backed to its own 4-yard line after muffing the opening kickoff, Messalonskee fumbled the ball at Johnson’s feet two plays later.

Toothaker ran it in from seven yards out. Both first-half Mt. Blue touchdowns came on fourth down.

The junior’s second jaunt to the end zone covered 51 yards with 6:27 remaining in the third quarter. Barker hit Lowe for the two-point conversion.

Lowe, Moloney, Toothaker and Matt Burnham were among the leading tacklers for Mt. Blue, which permitted only one Messalonskee move inside the Cougars’ 20-yard line. Nick Ouellette led the Eagles with 94 rushing yards.