It’s been four years since Lisbon won a Campbell Conference championship, which is virtually a drought by its lofty standards.

This year’s senior class doesn’t want to be the first since the Class of 2002 to go an entire high school career without a Western C title. If it doesn’t end up getting one, it won’t be for a lack of desire.

“I think last week’s a good example of that. If we had any quit in us, I think we would have lost that game against Winthrop, because they certainly took that game over in the second half,” Lisbon coach Dick Mynahan said. “The kids came back because they wanted to.”

The second-seeded Greyhounds survived the second half and took over in overtime to beat No. 3 Winthrop, 24-16, in the semifinals. Now, they have a more daunting task in front of them — overcoming an unbeaten Yarmouth team on its home turf — to win their first regional crown since 2006.

No. 1 Yarmouth (10-0), playing in its second consecutive regional final, is a large hurdle to clear. The Clippers have won 18 of their last 19 since starting 1-19 as a program. They boast perhaps the fastest team in Class C, they are averaging 47.3 points per game this season and they handed the Greyhounds their only loss of the season on Oct. 2.

“They’re a great team,” Mynahan said. “We just have to go there with the idea that we’re going to take some chances. The chances either will work or they won’t work. We’re not going down there just to watch them run around us. We’re going to try to be aggressive, we’re going to try to do what we do and we’re not going to worry about the score.”

The score the first time the two teams met was 16-13, as the Clippers won on a Bryce Snyder 27-yard field goal with 19 seconds left.

Due to injuries and academic ineligibility, the Greyhounds have a few different faces from the first game. Sophomore Ryan Riordan got his first varsity start at quarterback against Winthrop last week and threw two touchdown passes, including the game-winner in overtime.

Tobey Harrington, Lisbon’s leading rusher, has been limited in the playoffs by a high ankle sprain. He only kicked in the quarterfinal win over Jay and carried the ball twice and played a few downs on defense against Winthrop. Mynahan said he doesn’t expect much to change on Saturday.

Josh Pomerleau, Zack Splude, Mike McNamara and freshman Jordan Torres have filled the running void left by Harrington. 

Yarmouth coach Jim Hartman said the personnel changes won’t affect how his team prepares for Lisbon.

“That team is so well-coached that I don’t even worry about it,” Hartman said. “We’re preparing for everything. They are such a great coaching staff and they have such a great football team. You plug in McNamara, you plug in Splude, you plug in 13 (Zack Greene) or 83 (Cameron Graf), it doesn’t matter, they’re off to the races. You’ve really got to play a system. That’s what you play.”

Hartman can plug in a number of different players into his offense and maintain the Clippers’ explosiveness.

Junior running back Anders Overhaug leads the team with 17 touchdowns. Senior Nate Pingitore has the speed to break big plays from scrimmage or on kick returns, and fullback Nick Proscia is a tough inside runner. Freshman quarterback Brady Neujahr also contributes to the running game.

“All of their running backs can run really well. They’re fast,” senior defensive end John Crafts said. “We want to shut that running game down.”

“It’s a very similar system (to Lisbon),” Hartman said. “We run it a little differently than (Lisbon) runs it, but it’s the same thing. We’re always rotating players, trying to keep them fresh, and making other teams have to think and make choices at the point of attack.”

 Lisbon’s defense was too often a step behind Yarmouth in the first game, Mynahan said. With the Clippers’ speed, that can prove fatal.

 “What we really noticed in that first game is we made a lot of mistakes defensively,” he said. “We could see that a lot of times our linebackers hesitated just a second, and that second meant that we didn’t get there. We’re going to react to movement now. We’re not going to look at the play. When there’s movement, we’re moving. If we’re moving in the wrong direction, that’s okay, but we’re going to be moving.”

Both teams will be moving on Yarmouth’s artificial turf, which adds to their speed. The Greyhounds don’t see the surface as a big advantage for the Clippers.

“We’re playing in the mud right now. I think anything is going to be better than what we’ve been practicing in,” senior guard/linebacker Matt Nicholson said. “It doesn’t really matter. We have fast guys. They’re going to be fast on the turf, too.”

Speed may be the calling card for both teams, but Hartman expects the game to be more smash-mouth than finesse.

“You’ve just got to out-physical these guys,” he said.

Copy the Story Link