FARMINGTON — If it wasn’t for Mt. Blue High School’s defense and Molly Harmon’s insurance goal, the Cougars and Skowhegan High School field hockey teams might have battled into the wee hours of the morning.

The Cougars (12-0-1) and the Indians were ferocious and the spent the entire game breathing down each other’s necks.

But the Cougars’ indomitable defense made their one-goal lead stand up as Mt. Blue sidestepped Skowhegan, 2-1, at Caldwell Field on Thursday.

There was no letup on either side — and that goes for both halves.

The teams’ defenses were tough to get around, but the Cougars successfully protected their one-goal lead.

“My defense just played incredible,” Mt. Blue coach Jody Harmon said. “Gracie Foss just had the game of her life. She has been playing like that all season, but this was just incredible.

“The heart and desire of her and Kayleigh Fontaine, my center back, were amazing. Every time they tried, they were right there to stop them and boom—back out.”

Of course, a couple of more goals from the Cougars would have made Harmon’s life a lot easier on the sidelines.

“You always want more than that,” Harmon said. “We had some really great opportunities and we just didn’t finish them. A three-, four-, five-goal lead would be much better, but we will take it. All you need is one goal to win. A win is a win, and it was an incredible game.”

Foss was just relieved that the Cougars’ defense held up.

“We worked really hard for this,” Foss said. “I was tired, but it was good. We were a lot stronger. We knew that they had hard drives so we knew we had to always be down and stop everything.”

“We have been preparing for this the past two weeks,” Fontaine said “We been playing — I don’t want to say lesser teams — but not like Skowhegan. So when it came to this game, we had to work extra hard.”

In the first half, Skowhegan (10-2-1), which is fast and skilled, scored the first goal. Indians freshman Alexis Michonski slipped the ball past Mt. Blue goalie Erika McArthur for an unassisted goal with 20:22 left in the first half.

Four minutes later, the Cougars collected themselves and returned the favor when senior Hannah LeClair scored on a Rebecca Harmon assist, tying the game.

Despite a flurry of fruitless activity in front both nets, the teams were about to head into halftime with a 1-1 tie hanging over them.

But Molly Harmon had other ideas when a penalty corner was awarded to the Cougars just as the halftime siren sounded.

With no time left on the clock, Mt. Blue lined up for the corner and a frenzy ensued in front of the Skowhegan net, with Harmon emerging with what would be the game-winning goal. There was no assist on the play.

The second half kept a crowd of more than 200 on the edge of its collective seat. The Indians spent the first 10 minutes hounding the Cougars in front of their net.

Mt. Blue reciprocated and squandered several chances to score another goal, but held on for the win.