And, after falling into a 14-point third-quarter hole, Lisbon’s offense opened up to the tune of three Kyle Bourget touchdown passes before the Greyhounds fell short in a misty 28-26 Class C football loss Saturday at Thompson Field.

The 7-1 Black Raiders used a ball control offense and steady rushing game that produced 370 net yards on the ground.

“I think we’re going to pass the ball a little more in our next game,” said Lisbon coach Dick Mynahan. “We’ve been running the ball over the past couple of weeks. We tried to run the ball, but they’re just too big and strong for us. They’re big on both sides of the ball.

“What I took from this game is that our kids didn’t give up and they’re not going to pack it in. We lost 28-26 and I’m proud of the way they played. Had we lost 28-0 it wouldn’t have felt too good.”

When Zachary Guptill capped a nine-play, 87-yard drive — highlighted by a 30-yard Dylan Hapworth sweep to the Lisbon 11 — with a tough 2-yard TD run, the Raiders led 21-7 with 7:59 left in the third quarter.

Lisbon, save for a 23-yard Bourget-to-Quincy Thompson touchdown pass with 5.6 seconds left in the first half, couldn’t get anything going against the bigger, stronger Raiders, who dominated the line of scrimmage. Lisbon had just six first downs overall.

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However, things got interesting.

Lisbon punted on its only two possessions of the third period and a Hapworth punt pinned the hosts down at their own 3 early in the fourth period.

Again, the Lisbon offense bogged down and a third-down quick punt by Thompson put Winslow at the its own 43, but a Raider fumble on first down was recovered by Lisbon’s Joe Philbrick.

Five straight passes later, Bourget hit Hovey was a 9-yard strike to cut the lead to 21-14 with 7:17 left.

Winslow came back and ran 65 yards on four plays, the last a 40-yard scamper by Hopkins with 5:24 left for a 28-14 advantage.

On Lisbon’s next possession, Bourget hit Haley on second-and-10 for a 64-yard strike, but the kick failed. Now 5:01 remained.

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A Stevens squib on the ensuing kickoff bounced over Winslow’s first line of receivers and was pounced on by Thompson at the Winslow 40. A late hit penalty gave Lisbon strong field position at the Winslow 25.

Bourget hit Thompson for a 25-yard scoring strike on first down, but the conversion pass to Haley was broken up by Michael Clark of Winslow at the goal line.

With 4:51 remaining, the Raiders stuck to the ground and got first-down runs from Guptill (three) and Hopkins and marched all the way to the Lisbon 1 where quarterback Bob Chenard (3-of-7, 44 yards) took the knee twice as time ran out.

The Raiders piled up 18 first downs and got 208 rushing yards from Hopkins on 28 carries, while Hapworth ran 11 times for 116 and the bruising Guptill 19 times for 77 yards. Hopkins had touchdowns runs of 4 and 3 yards in the first half.

In the Lisbon attack, Bourget finished 8-for-16 for 163 yards and four TDs, while Thompson rushed 12 times for 33 yards as the Greyhounds mustered just 57 yards on the ground.

“We just kept fighting,” said Bourget. “We never gave up. We got that onside kick, got the ball back, and drove down and scored … we never gave up. The run wasn’t working so we went to pass. We had some great throws and some great catches … it was a whole team effort.”


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