LISBON FALLS — The Monmouth Academy boys’ soccer team began the 2012 season with a 2-1 victory over Mountain Valley.

But the Mustangs saw the Sept. 4 meeting with Lisbon as a benchmark game to get the squad pointed in the right direction.

Last season, it was a senior-laden Lisbon team that posted a 7-0 victory over the young Mustangs. But this year’s Greyhounds entered Tuesday’s Mountain Valley Conference opener with nine new starters on the field.

The final score — a 1-1 rain-soaked, double-overtime deadlock, a result both Monmouth (1-0-1) coach Joe Fletcher and Lisbon (0-0-1) skipper Dan Sylvester embraced.

“This is a great tie for us, especially after coming out those first 15 minutes and trying to find ourselves,” said Sylvester, whose Greyhounds visit Hall-Dale on Thursday. “We started to show what kind of a team we are, winning the 50-50 balls and controlling play.”

“Last year, they took it too us really good, and we wanted to turn the table, and we did throughout the majority of this game,” said Fletcher, with a visit to Dirigo set for Thursday. “I am not displeased. We played hard.”

A key matchup was Monmouth striker Kyle Fletcher against Lisbon defender and freshman Jake Angelico.

Fletcher scored the opening goal, stealing a Lisbon clear and firing a shot past Greyhound netminder Andrew Gamache at the 17-minute mark of the first half.

From there, Angelico shadowed the Monmouth standout, giving as much as he took over the final 73 minutes of soccer on the slippery field.

“Jake, being a freshman and being in that spot, with Kyle just so fast, I knew we were throwing him into the fire, and he did an outstanding job keeping him in check,” said Sylvester. “We knew Monmouth would look for Fletcher down the stretch, and my kids did very well.”

Fletcher caused problems for Lisbon. He broke free twice in overtime, forcing Gamache to make two of his eight saves.

“Kyle is real good and has put in a lot of time, and I must say their 24 (Angelico) played really well and did a good job,” said Fletcher.

“Everyone has their weaknesses and you just have to find them,” said Angelico. “I backed up a little bit more, knowing he is much faster than me. When he scored, I was too close to him. My mistake!

“I thought we were very nervous in the beginning, and we seemed to relax after we tied the game.”

The tying marker for Lisbon came with 9:41 remaining in the first half. Brady Fenderson sent a pass to Kyle Whitman, who darted past a Monmouth defender and let loose a hard shot into the upper corner of the net past the diving Mustang goalkeeper Kasey Smith (nine saves).

“Kyle’s goal was huge, as we were looking for that goal to get that tie and just hoping that it pushes us up a little bit more,” said Sylvester. “We became more aggressive after that.”

After being outshot 7-2 in the first 30 minutes, Lisbon controlled the remainder of the first half after Whitman’s goal, finishing with a 9-8 edge in shots.

Smith’s best save came on a low skidding rocket by Tyler Bard late in the first half, while Aaron Halls put a scare into the visitors when his breakaway shot missed inches wide of the target. Later, Smith’s attempted clear caromed off the chest of Halls and nearly crossed the goal line before the netminder grabbed the bounding ball.

Monmouth held a slight edge in shots, 20-19, with both teams taking seven corner kicks in the spirited contest.