DIXFIELD — After it appeared Mountain Valley had the momentum in the third quarter of Friday night’s game against Dirigo, the Cougars snatched it back and rattled off 29 unanswered points to take a 43-22 victory at Harlow Park.

“We knew Mountain Valley was going to make a good push at it and make a comeback,” Dirigo coach Craig Collins said. “They play hard and (Mountain Valley) coach (Pat) Mooney does a great job over there. So we expected them to play hard.”

Mountain Valley (1-2) started the third quarter in style when Bradley Sirois returned the second-half kickoff 80 yards to the house and the 2-point conversion tied the game at 14-14.

“That was a great return, that was excellent, that was textbook and it really gave us a shot in the arm and to score and get that momentum, it’s a shame we gave it away,” Mooney said. “Way too many penalties tonight.”

After the Cougars (2-1) turned the ball on downs at their own 20, Colton Gallant’s 19-yard touchdown run two plays later and the ensuing 2-point conversion put Mountain Valley up 22-14.

After Dirigo quarterback Hudson Lufkin threw his third interception of the game, Mountain Valley’s following drive stalled at Dirigo’s 44. That’s when the game changed after a 28-yard punt by Mountain Valley gave Dirigo the ball at its own 16-yard line.

On the first play of the Cougars’ drive, Lufkin called his own number for an 84-yard touchdown run with 6:24 remaining in the third, and he added the 2-point conversion to tie the game at 22-22.

“I saw a lot of open grass,” Lufkin said. “The team put it together, very good job blocking from everybody. That was a team play right there.”

Later in the quarter, Dirigo’s Owen Smith had a big punt return to Mountain Valley’s 22-yard line. He later scored from 1 yard out and Lufkin made the 2-point conversion to give the Cougars a 30-22 lead.

Dirigo added two more touchdowns in the fourth to put the game away. Nathaniel Wainwright scored his second touchdown of the game on a 9-yard scamper and Lufkin threw a 5-yard scoring pass to Dakota White with under 2 minutes remaining to cap the scoring.

The Cougars exhibited a quick-strike offense early, with a touchdown just 34 seconds into the game. Lufkin found Trevor Crosby for 19 yards on the first play of the game, followed by a 37-yard bomb to Hunter Pickard to Mountain Valley’s 3-yard line.

On the next play, Tanner Bradeen punched the ball in from 3 yards out to give Dirigo a quick 6-0 lead.

“We knew what we were going to do when we came out,” Lufkin said. “Scouting and coaches did their job and we executed and we started out really good, really big.”

On Dirigo’s next possession, Lufkin’s 21-yard touchdown throw to Wainwright completed a 13-play, 75-yard drive and gave the Cougars a 12-0 advantage.

“He runs to the open field, he knows how to get the ball and we have a lot of chemistry,” Lufkin said of Wainwright.“I talk to him a lot and I trust him every time I put the ball in the air.”

After the Falcons turned the ball over on downs early in the second quarter, they quickly got the ball back when Rilan Farnum picked off Lufkin at Mountain Valley’s 30-yard line.

“We got in a rhythm early, easy throws for Hudson, he completed them,” Collins said. “As the half went on, we had some drop balls. When you have drop balls, it comes a mental part (of the game) and we dropped some balls we should have caught.”

A 10-play Mountain Valley drive stalled on downs at Dirigo’s 28. The Cougars lined up to punt on their following drive, but a low snap went to Dirigo’s 7-yard line, where the Falcons took over.

Three plays later, Mountain Valley quarterback Blake Small ran the ball in from 2 yards out to cut the deficit to 12-6 with 4:34 remaining in the first half.

Dirigo forced a safety late in the first half to take a 14-6 lead into halftime.