LISBON — It wasn’t exactly the equivalent of ripping up the defensive playbook and starting over, but the Lisbon Greyhounds’ adjustments without the ball were enough to reinvigorate their stout, bend-don’t-break philosophy and confuse Boothbay, helping the Greyhounds shut out the Seahawks 19-0 at Thompson Field on Saturday afternoon.

“We changed our whole entire defense up,” Lisbon defensive back Henry Adams said. “Our corners were blitzing, our safeties were up, we had linebackers back. It was completely different from last week.”

Adams’ interception with 7:49 to play in the game was the final salvo of the revamped defensive unit, stopping the Seahawks in the red zone for the second time in the game to preserve the scoreboard bagel.

“Coming into this game, we told ourselves we wanted to get another shutout, like we did against Boothbay last year,” Adams said. “I knew if we didn’t get that interception, it wouldn’t happen. I saw the play was called, their receiver ran their vertical and I played it back. He overthrew it, I just put my hand up and caught it.”

“The defense has been doing that for us all year,” Lisbon coach Dick Mynahan said. “We saw some changes in our backs today that we haven’t been there all year.”

Adams eluded a pair of tackles before falling at the 5-yard line. The Greyhounds’ offense took over from there and bled the remaining 7:49 from the clock with incremental gains, punishing the Boothbay interior line with run after 3- and 4-yard run.

“We blocked well, in the second half especially, and we ran hard,” Mynahan said. “I think we turned a little bit of a corner today.”

Quarterback Tyler Halls picked up the most yardage on the ground, running for 97 yards on 14 carries. But it was fullback Noah Francis who did the dirty work, pounding his way through the line for 42 yards on 13 carries and two touchdowns, both from the 1-yard line.

“That’s exactly what he’s there for,” Mynahan said.

Francis’ brother, Lucas, a freshman, earned a handful of touches later in the game in the same situations, gaining 23 yards of his own.

“For a freshman, you can’t complain about him carrying the ball,” Mynahan said. “He’s not fumbling the ball, he’s been in some tight situations for us. A couple of nice runs here, a nice run there … he does a lot of things for us.”

The Lisbon (3-1) defense fired the first shot in Saturday’s battle, though it looked as though it would break quickly. Boothbay ran its opening possession from its own 38 and marched to the Lisbon 6 on 12 plays. But a pair of runs went nowhere, and the Seahawks (0-4) tried an aerial attack in tight to the goal line.

“We were able to move the ball a bit on offense, but they’re a very good team,” Boothbay coach Bryan Dionne said. “They had some energy today.

“We had our best receiver (on the goal-line play), it went into his hands and we didn’t catch it,” Dionne added. “It happens.”

“You don’t get too many of those (goal-line stands) in a season, and I think that’s our third one of the year,” Mynahan said.

With the stand, the Greyhounds started to believe in the changes on the defensive side of the ball.

“We thought the defense wasn’t going to work at first, but we really stuck to it, came together, played as a unit,” Adams said. “That’s what we have to do every game.”

The Greyhounds then ran a clock-munching 18-play, 95-yard drive over 8:13 spanning the end of the first and beginning of the second quarter. Noah Francis capped the drive with a one-yard plunge and added the PAT for a 7-0 Lisbon advantage.

The Seahawks then caught the turnover bug. On their first play from scrimmage following the Lisbon TD, Boothbay coughed up the ball at midfield. Halls found Tyrese Joseph down the right sideline for a 23-yard touchdown pass just three minutes later for a 13-0 lead.

Though Lisbon didn’t generate any points from it, the Seahawks again fumbled on their next try.

“We focused on being physical, and that’s what caused the fumbles,” Adams said.

“They ran a little bit of a different defensive look than they have been,” Dionne said. “That caught us off guard a bit and we had to make some adjustments. Once we did that, we moved the ball well, we just kept turning it over.”

Lisbon held the ball for nearly six minutes to start the second half, and Noah Francis added his second score from the 1 to complete the scoring.

“Coming off a loss, I thought the kids played well today,” Mynahan said.

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