YARMOUTH — Perhaps the most oft-uttered word coaches direct at freshmen in any sport is patience.

Yarmouth coach Jim Hartman said it to his freshman quarterback, Brady Neujahr, prior to Saturday’s Campbell Conference Class C championship game. When the Clippers called for a sweep late in the fourth quarter down 12-7, Hartman hoped his quarterback would remember to be patient.

The play is called “Wing right, full student body,” and Neujahr showed the patience his coach was looking for and the burst Lisbon feared on a 65-yard touchdown run that gave the Clippers a 14-12 victory and their first regional title in the seven-year history of the program.

Yarmouth (11-0) will face Eastern C champion Stearns for the state title next Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium.

“Last time we played this team, we ran that play twice and Brady stepped inside too soon,” Hartman said, recalling Yarmouth’s 16-14 win over Lisbon during the regular season. “I was on him before the game. I’d watched film (Friday) night and I said, ‘Hey, be patient. Take it to the outside and you’ll be gone.’ We only ran it once.”

They only needed to run it once. Top-seeded Yarmouth had success most of the day with running backs Anders Overhaug and Nick Proscia carrying the ball. Both ran for 100 yards apiece, but Lisbon’s defense didn’t break until Neujahr faked a hand-off to Proscia on the sweep. That got just enough of the Greyhounds’ attention to help give Neujahr the opening.

“I was coming around the corner,” Neujahr said, “Nick Proscia’s block hit the end, I just saw a seam right on the outside and turned on the jets. I knew I was gone right when I hit the corner. They bit down on Proscia, all sucked inside and I just hit that outside.”

“They’d been hitting 22 (Proscia) quite a bit, and my guess is we probably did (bite on the fake),” Lisbon coach Dick Mynahan said. “But they had a lot of blocking out that way and I think he just saw the hole. He’s pretty fast.”

Lisbon’s offense had one last chance to regain the lead it had held all day. The Greyhounds started at their own 41 with 4:02 remaining, but four straight passes by sophomore quarterback Ryan Riordan fell incomplete.

Lisbon (9-2) stopped the Clippers on their next possession and forced a punt and would have gotten the ball back with under two minutes remaining. But a running into the punter penalty gave the Clippers and first down and allowed Neujahr to take a knee to run out the clock.

The Greyhounds had the Clippers back on their heels early. After the defense held Yarmouth three-and-out to start the game, the offense took over with excellent field position, Lisbon’s own 48. Riordan (9-for-23, 182 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) connected on passes of 12 and 20 yards to Zach Splude to get the Greyhounds to the Yarmouth 15.

From there, on 4th-and-10, Riordan rolled out left to pass, but saw enough open real estate in front of him to run for the first down, to the 3. Two plays later, Tobey Harrington plunged in from the 1 for a 6-0 lead. The two-point conversion pass failed.

The Clippers marched to the Lisbon 18 on their ensuing possession, but a penalty and a Mike McNamara sack killed that drive. After Lisbon went three-and-out, Yarmouth drove deep into Greyhound territory again, this time to the 14, only to have McNamara stuff Asa Arden short of the first down on 4th-and-1.

Sensing an opportunity, the Greyhounds told Riordan to go deep on their next play, and he hit Josh Pomerleau in stride down the right sideline for an 87-yard touchdown. Lisbon failed to convert the two-pointer again, so the lead was 12-0 with 7:38 remaining in the first half.

“That was about as pretty a pass as I’ve seen in a long time,” Mynahan said. “As a sophomore, he took a couple of hard hits out there, threw the ball on the money a couple of times for us. What he does is he stands in the pocket and doesn’t have any fear.”

Yarmouth crossed midfield again on its next series, but a John Crafts sack snuffed that drive. The punt pinned Lisbon to its own 6, and then the Clippers got the break they needed when Riordan fumbled after taking the snap.

Proscia jumped on the ball at Lisbon’s 7, and the Clippers took just two plays to make it 12-7. Neujahr rolled left and found Proscia in the left corner of the end zone for a 6-yard touchdown pass with 2:36 to go in the half.

“That was good, just to get momentum back and not fall too far behind,” Neujahr said. “I rolled out, there was a guy coming right in my face, and Proscia just barely got open for a second.”

The teams battled for field position throughout a scoreless third quarter and well into the fourth. Back-to-back punts pinned the Greyhounds inside their 10 in the fourth. The second put the Greyhounds at their 1-yard-line, but Splude gave them breathing room and then some with a 74-yard run to Yarmouth’s 25 with a little under four minutes left. Overhaug chased Splude down from behind to make the touchdown-saving tackle, and the Clippers were able to stop Splude a yard short of the first down on a 4th-and-7 pass to get the ball back and set up Neujahr’s game-winning run.