LISBON — With players bent at the waist and on bended knee, all struggling to breath or shaking off an injury, Lisbon midfielder Ryan Fairbanks hugged keeper Shane Tanguay.

“That’s the best game you’ve ever played, man,” Fairbanks said unequivocally.

Others on the Lisbon sideline followed suit.

Tanguay was good. He was very good. And he had to be.

Faced with a group of forwards from Sacopee Valley almost to a man taller than any of the Lisbon defenders, Tanguay grabbed, batted, headed, blocked and smothered chance after chance as the Hawks tried to rally late, preserving for the Greyhounds a 1-0 victory and a trip to the Western Class C semifinals against North Yarmouth Academy.

“We had a lot of teams I didn’t see a lot of action against,” Tanguay said. “We had some teams where I saw a little bit more. But this team, they’re one of the best teams we’ve played. They’re one of the best teams in Class C. That’s a big win.”

Big for Tanguay in that he earned his ninth shutout of the season to set the school record. Big for the program in that this will be Lisbon’s second trip ever to a regional semifinal.

“I think we had a rabbit’s foot in the back pocket for a little bit there near the end,” Lisbon coach Dan Sylvester said. “I think in the first half, we controlled things a little bit better, but after we scored our goal, Sacopee just kept coming in waves.”

The reason for Sacopee Valley’s urgency was an early second-half strike from Mason Smith, who turned “right place at the right time” into “hero of the day.”

“I just needed a touch,” Smith said.

With the ball banging around the midfield, Fairbanks headed the ball with his back to the Sacopee cage toward the Hawks’ 18-yard box. The ball slowed as it neared the box, and Hawks goalie Mitchell Barton charged from his cage to corral it. Just as Barton slid to grab it, Smith touched the ball under the sprawling keeper and redirected it toward the corner of the cage.

“It was like in slow motion,” Sylvester said.

“All I needed was the touch,” Smith repeated. “I saw him coming. It was close.”

That goal, with 19:35 to play in regulation, forced Sacopee Valley’s hand. The Hawks started circling the Greyhounds’ end, putting relentless pressure on Tanguay and the defense.

Twice, in fact, the Hawks beat Tanguay, and twice defender Justin Grant cleared the ball out of harm’s way, both after the ball struck one of the goalposts.

“We made one tiny mistake, and I had to be there to clean it up,” Grant said. “There was just a lot going on.”

The first Sacopee chance to strike the post did so with 12:20 remaining. Tanguay dove to his left, tipped the ball off the post and it caromed back along the goal line, where Grant booted it to safety.

“I made the initial saves, and it’s nice to have someone there to clear the rebound,” Tanguay said. “I can’t always catch every single ball at full extension.”

The second big save from Grant came four minutes later, when a Sacopee Valley offering struck the crossbar from 20 yards out. The rebound popped into the air, and Grant soared over everyone to knock the ball away.

“It’s really about position,” Grant said. “They have a lot of bigger guys on that team, and it’s about how we played them, using the right positioning.”

The Greyhounds’ positioning — and aggressive nature — forced the Hawks into some bad decisions.

“That team didn’t allow you to settle in at any point,” Sacopee Valley coach Mike Lane said. “They took us out of our style of play, and we weren’t able to possess the ball for any extended amount of time. Every time we tried to string a couple of passes together, they were right on top of us.”

And then, of course, there was Tanguay.

“When we had the opportunity to put the ball past him. He made a couple of bobbles, and we didn’t have anybody there,” Lane said. “When we did have someone there, he never bobbled it. He did a good job today; he definitely kept them in it.”

No. 4 Lisbon will now host No. 9 NYA in a Western Class C semifinal Friday, with the winner advancing to the Western C final next week.

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