LISBON — Isaiah Thompson took the handoff on Lisbon/St. Dom’s first play from scrimmage, cut left and sprinted 56 yards to the end zone for a 7-0 lead before some in the crowd had yet to get comfortable in their seats.
To a player, the Greyhounds knew it wasn’t going to be that easy against rival Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale. And it wasn’t.
Winthrop and Lisbon slugged it out in the trenches for 48 minutes, with the host Greyhounds holding on for a 14-12 victory at Thompson Field on Saturday.
The win gives Lisbon a 5-1 record heading into next Saturday’s home contest with Poland, while the Ramblers will look to rebound on Friday at home against Madison/Carrabec.
Lisbon found success on offense by using the jet sweep, with the Greyhounds running for 251 yards in the contest, led by Thompson’s 167.
“All week we worked on getting to the outside, and on that play it worked,” Thompson said of his opening touchdown, followed by the point-after kick by Devin Marquis.
“It is always good to start a game like that, especially being that I felt we were a little bit flat before and wasn’t sure how we would come out of the gate,” said Lisbon coach Chris Kates. “We knew they had a pretty tough defense and knew it wouldn’t be as easy as that first play.”
“Their two big weapons are (Thompson) and Lucas (Francis), and when Thompson gets going early he has a good game,” said Winthrop (3-3) coach Dave St. Hilare. “If you can shut (Thompson) down early, you can keep him in control. To bust out on the first play, looked like we were going to have a long day. They killed us on the jet sweep. We had guys in position to make tackles, and at times we didn’t.”
The Rambler defense tightened the reins, keeping Lisbon off the board throughout the rest of the opening half.
“For the most part, they shut us down in the run game. I thought we were pretty resilient today,” Kates said.
On offense, Winthrop quarterback Keegan Choate put the ball in the air a lot. He threw 26 passes in the contest, completing 13 for 178 yards.
However, the Winthrop offense was slowed by penalties. In all, the Ramblers picked up 10 penalties for 85 yards, with many of the infractions, including four illegal formation calls, taking away big gains.
“We have quite a few formations, some on the line and some off the line, and we made some mistakes,” said St. Hilaire. “I thought we were the better team, but they made some good plays.”
RAMBLERS ANSWER
The Ramblers put together a solid drive in the second quarter. After Jevin Smith recovered a Lisbon fumble at the Winthrop 20-yard line, the Ramblers methodically moved down the field. After a holding penalty, Smith rumbled 14 and six yards on consecutive runs for a first down.
Smith carried the ball six times on the drive, including a 14-yard TD run to get the Ramblers on the board. The point-after kick failed, with Lisbon carrying a 7-6 lead into the intermission.
The third quarter was a stalemate, with the defenses winning out. Thompson recovered a Winthrop fumble, but the Greyhounds failed to convert on a short fourth-down run to turn the ball over on downs.
“They came at us hard on every play,” Thompson said of the Winthrop defense.
Lisbon closed the third quarter with a solid drive, moving from its 38-yard line to the Winthrop 9-yard line. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Francis tossed a touchdown pass to tight end Hunter Job, with Marquis tacking on his second point-after kick for a 14-6 Greyhound lead.
Winthrop followed with a long drive as well. The march to the end zone had a bit of everything — penalties, big runs, clutch passes, and even a sack by Job. Choate hooked up with Gavin Perkins for a first down to keep the drive going, and later threw to Ryan Baird (four receptions, 87 yards) on fourth down to move the ball to the Lisbon 21.
After Job’s sack and a six-yard loss on the next play, Choate found Evan Burnell for a 20-yard pickup to the Lisbon 7-yard line. On fourth down from the 1-yard line, Choate fought his way into the end zone on a quarterback sneak. However, his pass on the potential tying 2-point conversion attempt was intercepted by Isaac Burnell to keep the Greyhounds ahead, 14-12, with 5:18 remaining.
The Winthrop defense needed a stop on Lisbon’s next drive, but Francis and Thompson combined for 58 yards on the ground and three first downs to run out the clock.
“Sometimes your best defense is your offense,” said Kates. “We had a hard time stopping their passing game at the end.”
Kates was pleased to see his squad bounce back from last week’s 39-18 loss at Wells.
“Nobody wants to have two losses in a row, so to get back on track, against Winthrop, feels pretty good,” the Lisbon coach said.
“We were able to pull it out. It was important to bounce back. We had a rough week of practice, and this was a good way to turn the week around,” added Thompson.
For Winthrop, St. Hilaire feels his Ramblers need to clean up some things.
“We have to put this one behind us and take care of those mistakes, make tackles, catch passes and not take penalties. We do that, I think we’re OK,” Hilaire said.
Francis chipped in 63 yards on 19 carries for Lisbon and finished 3-of-7 in the air for 21 yards. Seth Leeman deflected four Winthrop passes to lead the defense, with Cam Bourget and Colin Houle making six tackles apiece.
Steele paced the Winthrop ground game with 56 yards, with Choate completing passes to six different receivers. Jake Sousa had a game-high 11 tackles.
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