LISBON FALLS – Old habits die hard at Lisbon. Dirigo just dies a little harder.

The 2007 Greyhounds had a knack for late-inning comebacks. The seventh inning of the 2008 edition’s Mountain Valley Conference opener looked like more of the same as they tried to rally from a 7-1 deficit. But reliever Ryan Lafleur finally slammed the door with the tying run at second and the winning run at first to give the Cougars a 7-6 win.

Derek Daley, Jon Smith and James Moulton accounted for all eight Dirigo hits and Aaron Fenstermacher baffled Lisbon for six innings before tiring in the seventh as the Cougars improved to 2-0.

A seemingly harmless dropped third strike to lead off the bottom of the seventh started the trouble for Dirigo. A single, hit batter and a walk made it 7-2. Kyle Neagle hit a single to center that ended up clearing the bases after the the ball was bobbled in the outfield. Lafleur came on to face cleanup hitter Tyler Brown, who flared a single to right to score Neagle and make it nail-biting time for the Cougars at 7-6.

“You just never know in this game,” said Dirigo first-year coach Dave Lafleur. “A dropped third strike got things going for them. I’ve got to give a lot of credit to (Lisbon) for never giving up.”

“No matter what happened today, that was a great confidence booster for our team,” said Lisbon coach Randy Ridley, whose team travels to Jay today. “We did a great job of being patient (in the seventh). We waited for our pitch and drove the ball.”

Mike Unterkoefler walked to put the tying run into scoring position, but Lafleur fanned Scott Eck on three pitches to nail it down.

“One thing that he does for me is he throws strikes,” coach Lafleur said of his son. “It’s a little bit tougher for him coming in and throwing from the stretch because he’s usually a starter. But even as a sophomore, he wants the ball, so I didn’t hesitate.”

The Cougars got three big insurance runs in the top of the frame, highlighted by a dangerous steal of home in which Lafleur slid in just as the batter was swinging at strike three yet somehow avoided getting up close and personal with a Louisville Slugger.

Prior to that, Daley (three hits, walk, three runs scored), Smith (two doubles, RBI) and Moulton (three singles, two RBIs) did all of the damage from the top of the lineup to stake the Cougars to a 4-0 lead through five innings. Fenstermacher, meanwhile, baffled the Greyhounds with a rolling curve ball and was extremely efficient through the first five frames (47 pitches), yielding just two hits and a walk.

“I was just trying to change it up, get them off balance, hopefully throw it for strikes,” Fenstermacher said. “Towards the middle, the fourth and fifth inning, I had a pretty good rhythm going.”

“You could tell we don’t see curve balls. We have a hard time with it, but we still need to recognize it’s a different rotation,” Ridley said. “Aaron kept us off-balance very well with that curve ball.”

Lisbon finally made a dent in the sixth when Marcus Bubar broke Fenstermacher’s string of 12 straight retired Greyhounds with a double off a retreating right-fielder’s glove. Brown (two hits, two RBIs) drove him home with a single to right to make it 4-1.