LISBON — Whether by air or by land or by trickery, Lisbon quarterback and punter Tyler Halls owned fourth down Saturday at Thompson Field.
The Greyhounds were a perfect 6-for-6 at converting get-to-the-stick-or-else plays Saturday afternoon, and Halls had a hand or feet in all of them to spark Lisbon’s 30-11 Class D South football win over Maranacook.
“I just knew that our team as a whole, including me, had to make a play,” Halls said. “Fourth down, that’s a big part in the game. It makes a big difference.”
Lisbon also went 7-for-13 at moving the chains on third down, a trend that allowed the Greyhounds to dominate time of possession for the second consecutive week.
That trend wasn’t enough in a 27-18 loss at Oak Hill, but 30 unanswered points on four time-consuming drives produced the Greyhounds’ most impressive victory of the season.
“The kids delivered, especially in the first half,” Lisbon coack Dick Mynahan. “We played in a way we haven’t played all year. I thought last week was our best, and the first half was as good as I’ve seen in a long time.
Both teams are 4-2 in the crowded race for the second through fifth seeds in the upcoming Campbell Conference playoffs.
Halls hit Tyrese Joseph with touchdown passes of 19 and 12 yards in the second quarter to produce a 22-3 halftime lead. He set up the first strike with a 20-yard run out of a rugby punt formation on fourth-and-8 from the Lisbon 27.
“I knew they would get the right blocks,” Halls said. “I just cut and went for it.”
Zach Lacasse’s 56-yard ramble set up a 23-yard field goal by Ty Smith to give Maranacook a brief 3-0 advantage with 7:50 remaining in the first quarter.
From that point forward, the Black Bears had only two three-and-out possessions before finding themselves in a 30-3 hole.
Three of Lisbon’s scoring drives gobbled up more than seven minutes.
“I thought it was our inability to run the ball. Our defense did pretty well,” Maranacook coach Joe Emery said. “Kudos to them, they made six or seven fourth-and-twos. The first half, that’s what really broke our back. That and my inability to figure out what would work and what wouldn’t. I didn’t really figure it out until midway through the third quarter.”
Halls had a quarterback sneak and scramble to convert fourth downs on Lisbon’s opening drive, leading to an 11-yard scoring rush up the gut by Noah Francis.
Francis, Lisbon’s 260-pound back, caught Halls’ two-point conversion pass for an 8-3 lead.
Joseph and Reece Martin-Morong made the solo tackles to halt Maranacook’s next series. Buoyed by the fake punt, Lisbon went 75 yards in 17 plays, concluding with Halls’ strike to Joseph over the middle.
“We just tried to adapt to what they were doing,” Mynahan said. “They have some good defensive ball players out there. They’re big, strong kids. We wanted to do more work on the outside. We thought after watching last week that they would probably cut off the middle for Noah, so some other kids had to step up today.”
Halls was 6-for-9 for 72 yards through the air and had eight carries for 42 yards on the ground. Henry Adams (12-61), Francis (14-46) and Grover (12-40) split the handoffs.
Lacasse finished with 125 yards for Maranacook but touched the ball only 11 times. The Greyhounds ran 65 plays to only 30 for the Black Bears, which lost two-way starters Jake Gibson and Jordan Sansaricq to concussions in the first half.
“They spread the field out so you have to cover the pass, the outside, and then they can get the three or four yards at a time up the middle,” Emery said. “That’s kind of what they did against Oak Hill, but Oak Hill has better perimeter players than we do.”
Adams capped Lisbon’s lengthy march out of halftime with a 9-yard run. That put Maranacook down 30-3 with 4:35 remaining in the third quarter.
Kyle Morand connected with Levi Emery for a 25-yard touchdown in the fourth for the Black Bears.
Lucas Francis fought for a sack and Benjamin Blake an interception to lead the Lisbon defense along with top tacklers Jared Glover and Kurtis Bolton.
“I think we can play with any team. To be honest, I think we beat ourselves (in losses to Dirigo and Oak Hill),” Halls said. “We capitalize on mistakes. That’s a big thing.”
koakes@sunjournal.com
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