LISBON FALLS — Lisbon’s starting defense wasn’t in any mood to give up yardage or first downs, let alone points, in Saturday’s Campbell Conference meeting with Old Orchard Beach.

In fact, OOB needed its own defense to finally get on the scoreboard in the second half. But by then, it was too little, too late.

Zack Splude threw for two touchdowns and ran for another, kicked four extra points and led a defense that shut down Old Orchard in a 34-10 victory at Thompson Field.

The Greyhounds (2-0) dominated more than the final score showed, but they weren’t satisfied with the relative ease of their triumph.

“I really don’t think we’re playing as well as we can,” Splude said. “We’ve had a lot of penalties lately, and it’s really hurting us. This isn’t our full potential.”

Lisbon stumbled out of the gate on offense with a key penalty and interceptions by Derek Powers and Andrew Fleury. Fleury’s pick came after the Greyhounds had a touchdown pass called back for illegal formation.

Lisbon’s defense got the ball right back one play after that second interception when Kyle Sheehan recovered a fumble at the Seagulls’ 6. OOB’s defense bent on the first three plays from scrimmage but finally broke on Mason Haley’s scoring plunge from a yard out with 4:10 left in the first quarter.

The Greyhounds continued to stifle the Seagulls (0-2) for negative total yardage until late in the second quarter. They ended up allowing only 12 yards in the first half.

“The ends were doing great and the linebackers were blitzing hard and putting a lot of pressure,” senior defensive lineman Dalton Dunphy said. “The ‘D-line’ was definitely working hard today.”

OOB fumbled a punt snap to set up the Greyhounds at OOB’s 38 for their next score. On 4th and 3 from the 8, Splude rolled out right and found Cam Graf wide open near the right sideline of the end zone for a touchdown.

After the defense held the Seagulls to yet another three-and-out, Splude rolled out right again and connected with Jordon Torres, who scampered for a 40-yard touchdown that made it 21-0 late in the first half.

“That’s always been a big play for Lisbon,” Splude said. “Obviously, we executed it pretty well today.”

Splude, who was playing quarterback in place of injured starter Ryan Riordan, hurt his hand in last week’s win over Oak Hill and was limited in practice until the middle of the week.

“Zack is an athlete that just works so hard during the off-season. He’s the strongest kid on our team. I think he’s as strong as anybody in the conference,” Lisbon coach Dick Mynahan said. “Unfortunately, with our quarterback injured, we had to put him at quarterback and take him out of the position where we wanted him to be at running back, but he’s adjusted well and passed well.”

On Lisbon’s first drive of the second half, Splude bobbled the snap and could have been stopped for a loss but improvised his way for a 37-yard gain to the OOB 10. After a Lisbon penalty, Splude scored on a 15-yard run to put the game away.

Lisbon held OOB to just 42 yards on 31 rushes and forced five turnovers, including two interceptions.

“Guys really held their gaps very nicely and our linebackers came and filled up. Obviously, we had a good rush on the quarterback,” Splude said.

“The defense just played an outstanding game,” Mynahan said. “When (OOB) started to drive on us, we were all second team out there. And I thought the second team played well except they didn’t cover well.”

The Seagulls finally got their first first down midway through the third quarter. They finally got on the scoreboard after a goal-line stand by the Greyhounds pinned Lisbon back to its own 1 to start its next series. Kyle Christensen sacked Splude in the end zone for a safety.

“It’s a war of attrition, and we’re not deep enough or skilled enough or experienced enough to drop a punt snap or not do the little things,” OOB coach Dean Plante said. “Those mistakes put you in field position trouble and Lisbon’s a team you can’t give an inch to.”

OOB opened it up through the air against  the backups and made it 28-10 on a 19-yard TD pass from Jeremey Legere to Spencer Leask with 7:03 left.

Haley capped the scoring with a 48-yard TD run.

“We’re happy with the game, but the penalties …” said Mynahan, whose team committed 10 infractions for 87 yards. “We had penalties last week. We had penalties again this week, and good teams just don’t make that many penalties. We got away with it today, but there will be a day we don’t.”

Copy the Story Link