Lisbon goes to 7-0 with an impressive win over Livermore Falls.
LISBON FALLS – Sure, Lisbon believed from the first echoes of helmet-to-shoulder pad contact in August that Saturday’s game against Livermore Falls would be a gigantic one. Knew it all the way. Never doubted it for a minute.
During those two-a-day dog days, Greyhounds head coach Dick Mynahan took stock of the schedule, circled here, made a check mark there and guess-timated that the fourth and final playoff spot in Western Class C football might hinge on the result of that autumn encounter at Thompson Field.
Shows how much he knew.
“I guess it turned out to be a big game for a different reason,” Mynahan said after unbeaten Lisbon hammered out a 22-6 victory over Livermore Falls.
Big enough to ensure that Lisbon (7-0), eight seniors, two juniors and a laundry list of sophomores strong, can wrap up home field advantage throughout the regional playoffs with a triumph over winless Traip next weekend. Beat struggling Winthrop (one of the teams Mynahan probably figured he’d be chasing) the week after that and Lisbon will lock up the unlikeliest of unbeaten regular seasons.
Not even the 1997 state championship club, hallowed in these parts for its under-sized, over-achieving ways, can boast of that accomplishment.
“In August, we were putting together an offensive line, and I put some kids out there that I wasn’t sure would last two weeks,” said Mynahan. “You know, they’re still there.”
That group, led by senior Chris Waters, has the privilege of blocking for seniors Tony Walker and John Tefft, an inside-outside tandem that nobody in the Campbell Conference has devised a way to stop.
Walker carried 23 times for 125 yards and a touchdown, while Tefft logged 13 carries for 94 yards as the Greyhounds out-gained the Andies by a two-to-one margin.
All three Lisbon touchdowns came on 1-yard runs. Chris Kates (45 yards rushing, 28 passing) delivered quarterback sneaks with 5:15 remaining in the first quarter and 11:23 left in the fourth. Lisbon led only 8-0 until Walker capped the Greyhounds’ opening possession of the second half, one that encompassed nearly half the third quarter, with his scoring plunge.
Defensively, Derek Roy and Walker each sacked Livermore Falls quarterback Dane Hanson twice, and Lisbon kept the Andies off the board until junior Brad Bryant’s 16-yard run with 6:25 to go.
“We keyed on Bryant and their QB,” said Roy, a 185-pound senior linebacker. “We worked on that defensively all week, and we were well prepared.”
After Bryant’s score, Walker, Tefft and Kates subsequently ran a dozen more plays up the middle, and Livermore Falls (5-2) never saw the ball again.
“I told the kids this is the best I’ve felt in two years here,” said an upbeat Livermore Falls coach Brad Bishop. “We played hard. We fought hard. It was a good, hard-hitting clean game.”
Livermore Falls can clinch its first playoff berth since 1999 with a win over Buckfield/Dirigo at home Friday. A trip across the Androscoggin River to visit once-beaten rival Jay the following week then would determine the Andies’ first-round opponent.
Bryant rushed for 119 yards and has amassed a total of 1,094 this season.
In addition to his rushing output, Tefft caught two passes, rushed for a two-point conversion, passed for another, and uncorked a 71-yard punt. Levi Ervin intercepted Hanson to stop a Livermore drive in the end zone late in the first quarter.
Big game? Saturday’s result ensured that bigger ones lie ahead.
“We’re not satisfied,” Roy said. “It’s a big thing for us to have home field advantage in the playoffs.”
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