BRUNSWICK — There would be no last-second heroics this time around for the Mt. Blue High School football team.

Brunswick’s Will Bessey took the opening play from scrimmage 54 yards for a touchdown and the top-seeded Dragons never let up from there in a 40-0 win over the fourth-seeded Cougars on Friday night.

Bessey rushed for 218 yards and four touchdowns on 18 carries and also added a 24-yard reception in three quarters of work. The Dragons will take on No. 3 Brewer in the Pine Tree Conference B championship Friday night in Brunswick.

“That’s an awful good football team over there. We didn’t play well and they did,” Mt. Blue coach Jim Aylward said. “Will Bessey is a terrific back. That being said, every one of his linemen should get their name in the paper — they’re terrific. I thought they beat us up on the line.

“… Somebody is going to have to play great football to beat them this year.”

Brunswick finished with 293 yards rushing and 346 total yards, with quarterback Thomas Hanson completing 3-of-6 passes for 55 yards and a touchdown all in the first half. He also added a 1-yard rushing touchdown.

Mt. Blue, meanwhile, struggled to get anything going offensively. The Cougars — who scored the go-ahead touchdown in the final minute in a 35-34 win over No. 5 Cony last week — were limited to just 149 yards and turned the ball over five times. Christian Whitney was Mt. Blue’s leading rusher with 66 yards on 23 carries.

“When you score on the first play of the game, you could see a little bit of the air come out of their balloon,” Brunswick coach Dan Cooper said. “We just kept pouring it on. The defense played great and kept the pressure on them.”

Thanks to the play of Bessey and his offensive line, the Dragons maintained that pressure throughout the first half and ultimately took a 26-0 lead into intermission.

“It got the momentum going in our favor,” Bessey said, “and we just kept it going from there.”

Brunswick made sure not to give the Cougars any life in the second half, particularly after what Mt. Blue did to Cony in the Pine Tree Conference Class B quarterfinals. The Cougars trailed by 20 points at halftime before completing the improbably comeback.

“I told them the score was 0-0,” Cooper said. “Until I take you out of the game, it’s 0-0 and play that way.”

Mt. Blue — which lost starting quarterback Ryan Pratt to a left arm injury late in the second quarter — fumbled the ball away deep in its own territory three plays into the second half. Bessey, who recovered the fumble, did the rest and ran it into the end zone from 2 yards out two plays later.

Bessey added his fourth touchdown with 3:14 to go in the third quarter, plunging in from 1 yard out after a 29-yard interception return from Hunter Garrett to make it 40-0.

Evan Crawley — 621-5640

ecrawley@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Evan_Crawley

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