The Cougars trounce Skowhegan to gain home-field edge in the playoffs.
FARMINGTON – Mt. Blue coach Gary Parlin needed to do something at halftime to settle down his overcharged Cougars, and a glass of cold water in the face wasn’t going to do it on a sub-freezing night at Caldwell Field.
All Parlin needed to say was he was going to give the ball to Lance Meader for a couple of big running plays and let the defense take care of the rest.
Meader rushed for 169 of his 197 yards and both of his touchdowns in the second half and the rapidly rising Cougar defense held Skowhegan to just 118 total yards as Mt. Blue clinched home field advantage in the first round of the PTC playoffs with a 28-6 win Friday.
“We had a lot of guys that were trying to do to much (in the first half),” Parlin said. “It was senior night and everybody was so jacked. They wanted to hit a home run every time.”
Ironically, the Cougars (6-2) got a couple of home runs from Meader on his first two carries of the second half to quickly inflate what was a 6-0 lead at intermission. He took a handoff on the offense’s first play of the third quarter 90 yards for a touchdown, then added a 52-yard scoring run five minutes later to make it 21-0.
The Mt. Blue defense collected three interceptions and four sacks, led by Joe Starbird (two interceptions) and Cal Miller (two sacks). Miller and his teammates also got into the Indians’ backfield countless other times to throw Skowhegan’s dynamic running duo of Jared Walker (nine carries, 45 yards) and Zach Davis (14 rushes, 42 yards) for losses. Walker scored Skowhegan’s only points on a 40-yard interception return late in the third quarter.
“Early on we weren’t getting the pass rush because I think guys were so concious of Walker,” Parlin said. “Then in the second half, we got them in some passing situations.”
“We came in here knowing we had to establish a passing game,” said Skowhegan coach Bob LeCours, whose quarterbacks were a combined 6-of-23 for 57 yards. “We have become in the last couple of weeks very one-dimensional to our run game. We felt that for us to be competitive, we needed to throw the football.”
Starbird made Skowhegan (5-3) pay when it tried to throw the football for a quick score with under a minute left in what had been to that point a scoreless first half. The senior defensive back picked off a Mark Malo pass at his own 40, raced down the right sideline to the Skowhegan five, cut inside and appeared to reach the end zone. He was ruled down an inch shy of the goal-line, but it didn’t matter. Derek Taber dove in behind left guard on the Cougars’ next play for the game’s first score with less than 10 seconds left in the half.
“I thought I was in,” Starbird said. “We needed a big play and I was out last week and I figured it was my turn to step it up.”
Starbird and the rest of the defense stepped it up on several occasions before his big play. Skowhegan ventured into Mt. Blue territory on four first half possessions only to come up empty each time. The biggest threat came after Mike McGowan returned an interception 55 yards to the Cougar 20. After a pair of short runs, Hazen Pingree tripped up Davis for a three-yard loss in the backfield on third down, leaving Skowhegan with a fourth and long. Malo’s subsequent pass fell incomplete and the game remained scoreless.
Mt. Blue got even more stingy in the second half, yielding just 37 yards and three first downs to the Indians. Walker made the Cougars pay for a rare mistake by QB Garrett Lake (8-15, 122 yards, one interception) with his pickoff return for a touchdown, but the Cougars responded with a long drive capped by a three-yard TD run by Taber to complete the scoring.
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