DOVER-FOXCROFT – Senior John Smith would trade in his individual state title any day for a team title for Dirigo High School.

But there were no trade-ins at the Maine Wrestling Class C State Championship at Foxcroft Academy on Saturday afternoon.

That team title belonged to Lisbon High School, which scrounged most of its points midway through the tournament with third-place finishes to produce a stunning 145-point victory over second-place Dirigo with 132.5 points. Rounding out the top 10 team finishes were: Dexter, 129; Foxcroft, 787; Bucksport, 74; Calais, 56; Madison, 42; Monmouth, 42; Penobscot, 41.4; and John Bapst, 38.

The Greyhounds bounced back after taking it on the chin in the early rounds.

“We were down 35 points after the semifinal match,” said Lisbon coach Mark Stevens. “After every round, we went down and met in the locker room, and we talked about what we needed to do in the next round.

“Our kids heads were down; we lost some close matches. We knew that if we were going to spin things around, we needed to have all those kids who lost all those semifinal matches come back and wrestle for third.

“We talked about the team that had the most thirds were going to win this tournament. We had a banner round – the (consolation) semis. We met Dirigo head-to-head. We couldn’t rely on other teams to knock Dirigo off.”

So the Greyhounds took it upon themselves, beating the Cougars four times in that decisive round.

When Lisbon got to the finals, all they needed was one match to seal up a team title. The soft-spoken Forrest Cornell opened the finals with a victory in the 103-pound division, decisioning Beau Gagnon of Penobscot Valley, 8-4.

And Cornell knew he could be the one to wrap it up for his Greyhounds.

“Yeah, I felt pressure, but I just wanted to win,” said Lisbon freshman. “I think it is pretty amazing (Lisbon’s victory). All that work really pays off.”

“Pretty good for a freshman, huh?” added Stevens. “I want to say something about our freshmen – what a group of kids. Forrest sealed it for us, but we pretty much knew Dirigo would have to pull off a miracle.”

The Cougars would have had to win all four their matches with pins in the finals.

But Dirigo’s Smith colleacted his 150th career win and his third individual state title.

“It’s the same as my 100th victory; It is the same thing,” said Smith. “It is good to have three state championships, though.”

“The kid is amazing,” said Dirigo coach Doug Gilbert. “He is 44-0 this year.”

Lisbon’s Marcus Bubar took it to overtime to defeat Bucksport’s Ray Wood with an 9-7 decision.

“I just outwrestled him (Wood) – and conditioning,” said Bubar. “I trained hard all year.”

“Marcus added a little icing on the cake – that was a great match,” added Stevens.

In the finals, the Cougars collected three victories. Dirigo’s Brett Staples and Lisbon Matt Nicholson, no strangers during the regular season, pushed each other around the mat, but Staples came away with an 11-2 decision.

Dirigo’s Derek Daley held on to beat Foxcroft’s Tim Fogg with a 2-1 decision, but the Ponies’ Jerrod Rideout beat the Cougars’ Josh Palmer with a 7-3 decision.

“We won seven in row in the first round there at one point – three upsets,” said Gilbert. “We had some kids that didn’t come through for us.”

But Gilbert was impressed with the way Lisbon bounced right back after the opening rounds.

“Unbelievable – they came back,” said Gilbert. “They could have folded after that first round, and they didn’t.”