WALES — Two false starts spelled a frustrating start to a new-look season for Oak Hill High School football.

Fidgeting before the snap stymied the Raiders on fourth-and-goal inside the 1-yard line and denied a likely go-ahead touchdown late in Saturday’s first half. The same transgression short-circuited a potential game-tying two-point conversion in the fourth quarter.

Eleven penalties in all sealed Oak Hill’s doom in a 14-12 loss to neighboring Lisbon in the Raiders’ return to Western Class C.

“Very poor performance on our part,” said Oak Hill coach Dave Wing. “You’re not going to beat good teams, not even going to beat mediocre teams with that many penalties.”

Luke Caron’s 19-yard touchdown toss to Scott Eck and Tobey Harrington’s two-point rush landed Lisbon a 14-6 lead with 8:39 remaining.

Backed into third-and-16 by a delay-of-game penalty, Oak Hill still supplied a snappy answer. Brett Turcotte found Tim Levesque behind the Greyhounds’ secondary for a 70-yard TD strike.

But the penalty pushed the line of scrimmage from the 3 to the 8 on the two-point try, and John Crafts dragged Levesque to the turf with ease to protect the Lisbon lead.

Oak Hill’s lone series thereafter was wracked by two more penalties and sacks by Crafts and Mike McNamara. Joe Doughty deflected Turcotte’s desperation pass on a fourth-and-23.

Lisbon threw down Turcotte for a loss four times in the second half, stifling the Raiders to a net minus-12 yards rushing after intermission.

“We have pretty fast outside linebackers,” Crafts said. “We’re not big this year, but we’re definitely fast.”

Doughty shared a role in Crafts’ second sack of the game. Nick Dingley registered another.

Harrington and Eck rarely left the field on a cloudless, 80-degree day. Harrington led Lisbon with 18 carries for 159 yards. Eck added 9 rushes for 62 yards, including a 38-yard scamper to set up Caron’s 1-yard sneak for a 6-0 lead in the first quarter.

“We got some major blocking up front,” Harrington said of a veteran group led by Crafts, Doughty and Art Stambach. “We were got outside because of what those guys were able to do.”

Oak Hill limited Lisbon’s explosive backs to only five plays from scrimmage in the second quarter. Josh Prue (16 carries, 71 yards) was the central figure in a time-consuming drive that ended in his 24-yard scoring surge. The point-after kick veered wide left.

Kyle Emmons knocked the ball out of Caron’s hands on the second play of the Greyhounds’ ensuing drive. Chris Eaton recovered at the Lisbon 20.

Back-to-back completions from Turcotte to Levesque and two short runs by Prue moved the ball to the 1. Crafts, Ryan Havlicek and Andrew Arias converged to stop Turcotte’s forward push on third down. After a timeout and the ill-fated penalty, Turcotte’s lob to Dillon Tibbetts in the end zone fell incomplete with Harrington providing blanket coverage.

“If we end the half by punching that in, it’s a different game,” Wing said.

Harrington intercepted Turcotte early in the third quarter to maintain Lisbon’s momentum.

Oak Hill also couldn’t take advantage of Josh Allen’s fumble recover later in the period, due in part to a holding penalty just after the Raiders crossed midfield.

“The thing we worried about coming in was that they were going to wear us down. We’re not playing a lot of kids, and a lot of our kids are going both ways,” said Lisbon coach Dick Mynahan. “I guess it’s a credit to the heat and the conditioning. They showed up well today.”

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