Levi Ervin, Carl Grady, Nick Harmon and Elijah Treffts may be sophomores, but they’ve also been a major part of Lisbon’s success.
By Randy Whitehouse
Staff Writer

LISBON FALLS – The Lisbon Greyhounds will be taking a trip to Portland today to walk the artificial turf and soak in the surroundings of historic Fitzpatrick Stadium, the site of the team’s Class C state championship game this Saturday against Foxcroft Academy.

Coach Dick Mynahan hopes the workout will allow his team to experience the awe of playing in one of the state’s largest and most storied stadiums and get it all out of their system before they take the field Saturday.

Among those filing off the bus will be four sophomores who have come a long way since they were wide-eyed starters last September.

Levi Ervin, Carl Grady, Nick Harmon and Elijah Treffts aren’t just the supporting cast to a nucleus of talented upperclassmen. They have become key contributors for a team that lists just eight seniors and two juniors (along with 19 sophomores) on its roster.

Lisbon had as many as six sophomores on the field at the same time playing defense in last Saturday’s 28-14 Western Class C championship game against Boothbay.

“That, in a way, is kind of scary,” Mynahan said. “But most of them have had a lot of experience, so they’re not playing like sophomores right now.”

Indeed, the quartet has been playing like four-year varsity letter-winners, especially on defense, and their impact was obvious last week. Harmon made four tackles. Ervin led the team last week with seven solo tackles. Grady added three tackles (including two big stops on fourth down), assisted on eight others (a team high) and chipped in with two interceptions. Treffts collected a sack and helped clog up the middle of the defensive line so that Ervin and Grady and his other teammates could have a clean shot at Boothbay’s running backs. He also anchored an offensive line that cleared the way for nearly 300 rushing yards.

The sophomores seem to feed off each other’s success, and there’s been plenty off which to feast lately.

“We love it when a fellow classmate steps up on the field and makes a big play and we like to see each other kind of play the role of a senior and be a leader,” Treffts said.

“One person does well, we all do well,” Grady said.

That doesn’t just apply to the sophomores, he added. The 10th graders have provided welcome reinforcements to the team and the team’s juniors and seniors, realizing that the Greyhounds were going to be lacking experience this year, took the sophomores under their wing early.

“The real difference is, the upperclassmen, the seniors, treat them a little bit special,” Mynahan said. “That’s something we haven’t seen on this team for a long time. The younger kids are being helped by the older kids. That’s important for a team. That’s good chemistry. I think it makes the younger kids feel a little more confident and they know they’re going to be in the right place at the right time.”

The quartet credits Mynahan and his coaching staff with instilling that confidence since the preseason. While they went into this season with little or no varsity experience (Ervin and Treffts started toward the end of their freshmen year), rarely a game goes by where the opposition shows them something their coaches didn’t already tell them to expect.

Yet it’s still up to the players to listen to that information, process it, and use it when they are reacting to what happens on the field. The sophomores admit that they have had to pay a little more attention and work a little harder so they don’t end up looking like sophomores on Saturday.

“It’s a big difference from last year, when you get to play just a little bit here and there, to this year when you’re playing in almost half of some of the games,” Harmon said. “You have to learn a lot more.”

“I think we have to prepare a little more,” Ervin said. “Elijah and I take pride in the offense and running it. We love to do it. We have to work harder than everybody else. That’s what got us here.”

They may have a few more notches on their belt and a little more football world-weary than their peers with other teams. A first look at Fitzpatrick turf may not make their jaws drop the way they did when they played their first varsity game.

But they are still sophomores, still capable of getting wide-eyed when the circumstances call for it. The butterflies for Saturday’s game will be fluttering, if they hadn’t begun already.

“I’ve got to start getting some sleep,” Grady said. “It’s been keeping me awake at night.”