LISBON — As the Lisbon boys’ soccer team warmed up for a Tuesday afternoon practice for its first regional final, the sound of a whistle emanating from the other side of the snack shack reminded Jonah Sautter of where soccer has always been in the fall sports pecking order at his school.

“When people think about Lisbon, they think about the football team,” Lisbon’s junior goalkeeper said. “People are finally realizing that we are actually capable of winning playoff games. We hadn’t been doing that in the past, so to start it this year is a good feeling.”

Lisbon’s football team usually has the sprawling athletic complex all to itself once the calendar flips to November. That changed last Saturday when Sautter and the third-seeded Greyhounds beat Waynflete on penalty kicks to clinch their first trip to the Class C South regional championship game.

They face top-seeded Monmouth on Wednesday at 2 p.m. in hopes of continuing their historic run.

“They understand what’s at stake,” Lisbon coach Dan Sylvester said. “I think the reality set in after Waynflete, ‘Wow, we’re actually a part of something special.'”

“It’s crazy because we’ve never been here as a team,” senior back Josh Huston said. “I’ve been on a couple of semifinal teams. but it’s so much more real when you get this much further.”

Lisbon (10-3-3) reached unprecedented heights on the strength of a suffocating defense that has allowed 11 goals all season and posted nine shutouts.

“Defense is first for us,” senior Ryley Austin said. “We don’t mind not scoring first, but we’ve got to make sure they get zero goals. That’s our mentality going into a game. We don’t want to give up a goal because that puts us in a situation where we have to fight back.”

The Greyhounds came into the season knowing that points would be at a premium after graduating top offensive threats like Nick Huston and Austin Bedford. So Sylvester went into this season emphasizing defense, marking, discipline and versatility.

“We know that we have to win games 1-0 or 2-1,” Sautter said.

“We’re not a flashy team and we’re not built to score a lot of goals,” Sylvester said. “We just have a really good core of defensive players straight across the board.”

The defensive core’s cohesion is a product of its chemistry. Most of that core consists of seniors such as Huston, Nick Lerette, Chris Normand, Andrew Balser and Jacob Fusaro, who have been playing together for a long time.

“There are no egos on our team,” Sautter said. “We all get along. We know that we would do anything for each other. We just work together as a team, and that’s what has gotten us this far.”

“We can set people up in different positions and they do what they need to do for the team,” said Huston, a prime example of that since he moved from the midfield to fill in for an injured Fusaro. “That’s really what sets us apart. Other teams may have more skill than us, but we’ve meshed together way better than most other teams.”

Communication has helped the Greyhounds mesh, as has the the discipline to try not to force things on offense and the savvy to recognize when scoring opportunities arise.

“We just pack it in on ‘D’ and try not to jump too early into plays and have something happen where there’s an odd-man rush,” Austin said. “We try to be as patient as possible and try to get offensive opportunities through corners and set plays. “

Perhaps no one carries that plan out better than Austin, an all-conference midfielder/back. Sylvester refers to him as a tough spark plug who he can put anywhere on the field.

Austin is the glue that keeps all three levels of Lisbon’s defense together. On the rare occasion that falls apart, Sautter has shown he can keep the Greyhounds upright.

Now in his second year starting in net, Sautter’s self-confidence, and the Greyhounds’ confidence in him, continues to grow, especially after he stopped four of nine shots in two PK rounds against Waynflete.

“I think Jonah’s been getting better every game since the beginning of the season,” Sylvester said. “I think he caught on early how good he is and how much he’s going to help this team.”

The Greyhounds caught on early they could be pretty good, too. A 1-0 win under the lights at Wiscasset in the fourth game of the season gave them a sense that they could compete with the best in the Mountain Valley Conference.

They lost to Monmouth, 2-1, in their next game, but didn’t lose any of that confidence.

Their coaches and fans, on the other hand, have lost a lot of hair watching them. Ten of their games, including two playoff games that went to overtime, have been decided by a goal (in addition to three ties).

Close contests don’t phase the Greyhounds. They are a product of how they play.

“We just are so comfortable with it now,” Houston said. “It’s not like we score a goal and then sit back. But when we scored a goal, we can be comfortable because with the defense we have, we’re confident with what we can do the rest of the game.”

They’re confident with what they can do with the rest of the season, too.

“A lot of people know this is uncharted territory for us,” Austin said. “We’re just trying to put out the best games we can and keep going.”

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