LISBON — Several Lisbon players got in on the scoring in an 11-0 boys soccer victory over Mountain Valley on Friday afternoon.
“I am very pleased the scoring was spread out; and that’s a big philosophy of mine: working the ball and giving guys opportunities,” Greyhounds coach Shawn Rhoda said. “We don’t have a bunch of guys and we try to use these (types of) games to possess the ball.”
Eight Lisbon (4-1) players scored at least one goal. Danny Levesque, Levi Tibbetts and Hunter Brissette each had two.
Levesque said the Greyhounds have been growing closer as the season progresses.
“We are going hard in practices and a lot of conditioning, we are all building off the chemistry,” Levesque said. “When we get to the games, that’s the easy part.”
The Falcons (0-5), meanwhile, are young and understand that they will be on the wrong end of lopsided games this season.
“We know we are under-matched against a lot of these older teams,” Mountain Valley coach Martin Ball said. “We have a lot of freshmen and a lot of sophomores, so, it’s really all about learning and we know in couple year years we will (be better).”
The Greyhounds opened up the scoring nearly six minutes into Friday’s first half when Elijah Fullerton fired the ball past Mountain Valley goalie Andrew Crews (eight saves).
Tibbetts scored his first goal of the game when he headed in a Brissette throw-in to make it 2-0 nearly seven minutes into the first half. Levesque then converted a through ball from Fullerton to stretch Lisbon’s lead to 3-0.
“We work a lot on our set (plays),” Rhoda said. “Those are scoring opportunities. We try to really focus on that and get our percentage up on those kinds of plays.”
The Falcons were expecting the set plays and tried their best to defend them and prevent them from turning into scoring plays.
“We knew they were going to be big and tall with very dangerous aerial threats,” Ball said. “We did try to play our (tallest) players on defense, and we tried to stack the defense a little bit more. We mostly had five players (playing defense), and after that, we tried to catch them on the counter-attack and see what we could do.”
Tibbetts scored his second goal of the game to make it 4-0 for the Greyhounds. Owen Booker’s boot from midfield added to the lead and Brown’s header after a cross from Levesque made it 6-0.
Hunter McClausland scored his first varsity goal and Brissette added a score before halftime, and Lisbon went into the break with an 8-0 cushion.
“Hunter is a senior, so that’s a big deal for him; to get his first varsity goal under his bet,” Rhoda said. “Those things you remember (later in life).”
Levesque scored off an indirect kick early in the second half to extend the lead to 9-0. Brown had the assist.
“I was just possessing the ball, playing team (soccer) like I always do and the goals come with it,” Levesque said.
Brissette put the Greyhounds up 10-0 and Aiden Barr stretched the lead to 11 with his first varsity goal.
Sean Moore made three saves for the Greyhounds.
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