The evidence that the Lisbon Greyhounds can grind it out with the best of them lies right in the middle of Thompson Field.

A brown swath bisects the venerable field. The grass, what little there was to begin with, was torn up long ago, replaced by divots and sun-baked mud pock-marked by cleats.

Needless to say, Lisbon’s field has taken a beating. That shouldn’t be surprising considering the Greyhounds perennially play on it into November.

They’re doing it again this year. After a one-year absence, Lisbon is back in the Western C final. They’ll host Boothbay, another regular customer of the regional finals, next Saturday.

Ho-hum, right? Not to the Greyhounds. They don’t take their success for granted.

“It’s pretty exciting being in the playoffs. It’s not something we just expect,” junior linebacker/fullback Jesse Moan said after Lisbon dispatched Livermore Falls, 34-0 Saturday. “We try hard when we get there.”

If any unit exemplifies Lisbon football, it’s the linebackers. Senior Andrew Dubois and juniors Dan Willis and Moan are an undersized trio, but try telling Livermore Falls they can’t hold their ground.

“If you put them all together, they’re probably 450 pounds combined,” Lisbon coach Dick Mynahan said. “You look at them and you think you would be able to run at them, but for some reason, they seem to get there. They’re quick and they’re all fairly instinctive. They’re not the size we like to have, but they play the game well.”

They played particularly well Saturday, holding an Andies’ running game that stockpiled over 2,500 rushing yards this year to just 76 yards in three quarters of play (Lisbon’s second stringers took over in the fourth and did a pretty fair job themselves, preserving the shutout and extending the defense’s scoreless streak to 13 quarters).

The linebackers needed to come up big Saturday facing Livermore Falls’ double-wing offense and formidable backfield of Ryan Webster, Mark O’Shea and Karlton Jones.

The double-wing is designed to pick on linebackers. Counters and misdirections are the offense’s bread and butter, and if the linebackers don’t read their keys and are out of position, the running backs will pick up yardage in big chunks.

“This week, we put our kids into three groups and we talked about pre-motion reads and motion reads because that team comes at you in a lot of different ways and you’re not going to see it coming,” Mynahan said. “If the linebacker takes a wrong step, he’s in trouble. (The linebackers) played a real disciplined game today. They’re improving on that.”

“I just watched the motion man,” Willis said. “Wherever he went, I went. If he stayed inside, I was going inside. Just watch them and their linemen and that’s where the play was going.”

Disciplined. Smart. Coachable. Just like the rest of the team.

That’s the way it is in Lisbon. The coaches grind out a gameplan. The players grind the opposition into submission.