Wells hosted undefeated Lisbon in football. Lisbon quarterback #5, Lucas Francis, rolls out on a keeper while pursued by Wells defender Matt Tufts (44).
WELLS — Lisbon was offering strong enough resistance to Nolan Potter’s inside running early in Friday night’s battle of unbeatens, and Wells wasn’t finishing off drives into the red zone as frequently as it has much of the season.
So the Warriors went to the outside, and the air, and let their speed finish off drives shortly after they’d started.
Wells used big plays on offense and shut down Lisbon’s running game to pull away from a 14-6 halftime lead and hand the Greyhounds their first loss of the season, 36-6, at Warrior Memorial Field.
“(Big plays) are big for us because they get our momentum going,” Potter said. “And when the other team has big plays against them, it kills morale.”
Potter, a bruising 210-pound fullback, finished with 24 carries for 136 yards and two second-half touchdowns. But it was Jack Talevi, Tyler Bridge and QB Michael Wrigly who got the biggest chunks of yardage, combining for 190 yards on 12 runs, including a touchdown apiece by Talevi (49 yards) and Bridge (62 yards).
“(Lisbon) had some big guys on the inside,” Potter said. “They were keying me, but they had some very physical guys. It was not easy running up the middle at all. Those outside runs helped spread it out a little bit so we could get something going on the inside.”
Wrigley also had a 45-yard touchdown pass.
“With any Wing T team, as soon as you start trying to follow the football, you’re going to get yourself in trouble,” Lisbon coach Chris Kates said. “I think when we were following our keys, we were doing a good job containing them, but they got a couple of big runs on the outside with their jet sweep.”
Wells (7-0) fumbled at Lisbon’s 20 on its first possession, and Lisbon stopped Porter on 4th and 1 at its 16 on the second.
The Greyhounds (6-1) couldn’t get anything going on the ground, so they couldn’t flip field position. Wells took over at its own 44 on its third offensive series and sent Talevi on a jet sweep left on 3rd and 3 for his touchdown.
A 40-yard pass from Lucas Francis to Henry Doyle put the Greyhounds in position to answer, but Francis was stopped on 4th and goal from the 7.
This time, it was Lisbon’s defense that kept Wells pinned deep for a punt and took over at Wells’ 28. A 13-yard completion to Doyle set up 1st and goal, and Francis powered it in from the 3. Wells stuffed him on the two-point run to keep the one-point lead.
Bridge made it 14-6 with his 62-yard touchdown run with 1:05 left in the first half.
The Greyhounds didn’t cross midfield again until early in the fourth quarter. By then, Wells had pulled away with Wrigley’s touchdown pass to Peyton McKay and Potter’s first touchdown run, which was from nine yards out.
“We had a couple of drives where I thought we had a little bit of momentum and we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” said Kates, whose team had eight penalties for 85 yards.
Francis finished with 19 carries for 37 yards, while Isaiah Thompson rushed for 35 yards on 13 carries. Overall, Lisbon was 38-for-79 yards on the ground.
“We just have good linebackers that can key the running backs and quarterback,” Potter said. “We knew who their good runners were and we knew their quarterback liked to run, so we had our eyes on him. We just prepared well, i think.”
Wells outgained Lisbon, 401-140 overall.
Wells hosted undefeated Lisbon in football. Wells running back Nolan Potter has the ball stripped by the Lisbon defense resulting in a first quarter turnover.
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