Mountain Valley’s Espen Lamberg, left and Lisbon’s Ben LeClair vye for a head ball during Wednesday afternoon’s boys’ soccer game in Lisbon.
LISBON — It’s roughly an 80-minute drive from Mountain Valley High School to Lisbon High School, or the same amount of time as a regulation high school soccer game.
After making that length-of-a-game drive, Mountain Valley spent the actual length of the game trying to find some offense. It was to no avail, and the Falcons were stuck playing catch-up for most of Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to Lisbon in an MVC boys’ soccer game.
Mountain Valley coach JT Taylor said his team came out flat “right off the bus.” Things didn’t get much better for the Falcons (6-2-3), who in Taylor’s eyes played the “worst game we’ve played all season.”
“It seemed like they came out flat, probably a long bus ride,” Lisbon senior captain Noah Austin said. “We do that too when we go far places.”
For the Greyhounds (6-3-1), it was one of their biggest wins of the season, and the one that carries the most Heal points with it.
It didn’t come easy, however, nor was it done conventionally for Lisbon. Austin scored from Cam Poisson four minutes in, and the Greyhounds mostly stuck to defense the rest of the way.
“It was a good play by DJ (Douglass), getting the ball through. He passed it to Cam, Cam went inside, and I was just all alone for an empty shot far side,” Austin said.
“We haven’t been that team, really, to go out there against good teams to get that (early) goal,” Lisbon coach Dan Sylvester said. “We’re not looking to sit back, but we’re playing through a few injuries right now.
“So we’re a little bit slower than what we normally are, so we couldn’t be productive on the offensive side. But we got the one and kind of held back, and just kind of made sure that we didn’t give them too many looks.”
The Falcons didn’t get a shot on goal until 22 minutes into the game, when Espen Lamberg put the second touch of an indirect kick from just outside the box on goal. That was Mountain Valley’s only on-target shot of the first half.
“We know they can be deadly on the counter-attack, so we were trying to take away their better pieces,” Sylvester said.
The Greyhounds didn’t put any shots on goal in the second half, but they didn’t need to. Their back line and senior goalie Jonah Sautter kept the Falcons’ chances to a minimum. Only two of those chances were on-target, and both came in the final five minutes, when Taylor said his team showed “a little fire.”
That fire made the Greyhounds sweat a little bit.
“They have good forwards, and getting towards the end it was tough keeping them out,” Austin said. “But we followed through and played well.”
Sautter finished with three saves, while his Mountain Valley counterpart, Jacob Rainey, stopped four of five shots in the first half and snuffed out a few Lisbon runs to through balls in the second.
“I don’t think either team played really clean soccer today, but we’ll take what we got,” Sylvester said.
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
Lisbon’s Dylan George, left and Mountain Valley’s Espen Lamberg battle for the ball during Wednesday’s game in Lisbon.Lisbon’s Jacob George, left, crashes into Mountain Valley goalie Jacob Rainey as he gobbles up a loose ball in the box during Wednesday’s game in Lisbon.Mountain Valley’s Garrett Garbarini flies through the air as he battles with Lisbon’s Ben LeClair for control of the ball during Wednesday afternoon’s game in Lisbon.
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