It’s pretty much a straight shot north or south, depending on where the short journey begins, to get from Lisbon High School to Oak Hill High School, or vice versa.

However, the road to this year’s edition of the Route 9 rivalry has been anything but straight-forward for Lisbon and Oak Hill/St. Dom’s. But, here we are, the final week of the regular season in Class D and this year’s matchup is as important as it always seems to be.

“The Lisbon-Oak Hill game is always a game that everyone looks forward to,” Oak Hill/St. Dom’s coach Chad Stowell said.

The teams have taken different paths to Friday night’s 7 p.m. kickoff since the season began.

Stowell’s Raiders were shut out at home in Week 1 (31-0 vs. Wells) and Week 2 (48-0 against Foxcroft Academy). They went on the road in Week 3 and scored their first points, but suffered another loss (16-6 at Poland).

Since then, the Raiders have been on a roll, winning four straight to go from the Class D South basement to the current No. 2 seed and the first-round bye that comes with it.

“I think there are a couple of reasons,” Stowell said of the winning streak. “First of all, we played some very tough teams to start the season, and we did not do a good enough job preparing for those opponents, that’s my responsibility. Secondly, we gained some real good experience in the first three games that helped us overcome adversity in these past four games.”

Stowell said making adjustments on the offensive line — including moving Levi Marks to center and putting Logan Langlois at tight end — gave skill position players a chance to be successful. The Raiders have scored at least three touchdowns in each game of the winning streak.

The Greyhounds, on the other end of the spectrum, turned the page from last year’s Class D state championship runner-up finish and opened this season with a 34-12 win at Belfast. But since then, there’s been a three-game losing streak, a 20-19 home win over Winslow, and the current two-game losing streak to put Lisbon at 2-5 and in the cellar of D South.

“Our youth has been the biggest positive and negative,” Lisbon coach Chris Kates said. “When playing young kids there will always be growing pains, but I’m proud of the way that our team has kept grinding to improve every week.”

A caveat to the Greyhounds’ campaign is back-to-back games against Fryeburg Academy and York of Class C to cap off that early three-game losing streak.

“Anytime you can play against quality opponents, it helps develop your team,” Kates said. “While the results weren’t always favorable, it showed our team that we can compete with quality teams and gave us confidence heading into our conference schedule.”

Key players for the Greyhounds this season, according to Kates, have been Adam Hayes, Emmett Mooney, Demetrius Clark and Chris Lavalley.

Stowell said running back/linebacker Adam Hinkley has been a leader for the Raiders, and at times has been the only senior on the field. Juniors Colton Davis and Forrest St. Laurent are the most experienced linemen, and they’ve had to be leaders by example for those units. Kaiden Delano has played a lot of snaps at tailback and middle linebacker due to injuries, and Stowell said he’s played well at those positions.

All those key players will have their chance to make their mark on the latest edition of this rivalry Friday night.

“Lisbon is tough to prepare for because they are very balanced with what they do (offensively), they attack with multiple backs in the run game and their pass game is dangerous, both vertically and horizontally,” Stowell said. “We have to make sure we have our alignment’s correct before the snap and stay disciplined.”

Stowell also noted that this year’s Lisbon team isn’t the biggest Greyhounds squad the Raiders have faced, “but like always, they play very downhill and they tackle. They make you earn yards.”

Kates said the keys for the Greyhounds on Friday night revolve around the fundamentals. On offense, they must sustain drives and hold onto the football; on defense, limit big plays and force turnovers.

He said the Raiders’ offense runs well between the tackles, and they have multiple playmakers on the outside in the passing game. The defense runs aggressively to the ball and plays tough inside.

Stowell said Oak Hill’s offense needs to value possessions and communicate and execute up front. Discipline and sure tackling will be keys on defense.

The playoffs are on the horizon for both teams after this game — something that isn’t lost on Stowell, who would like to finish off the regular season on a positive note.

“We have a chance at a bye, and that would be huge considering how small our roster is and the amount of snaps some of the kids have played,” Stowell said.

The Greyhounds are assured of playing a regional quarterfinal next week as one of the lower seeds in the South, but Kates isn’t looking that far in the future yet.

“Our main goal is to stay on our path of improving every week,” he said. “A win this week would go a long way towards reinforcing that message and giving our kids confidence.”

RIVALRY REPEAT?

Depending on how the D South dominoes fall, the Raiders and Greyhounds could match up again in the playoffs, possibly even next week in the first round. If they do, it would continue a trend of the rivals playing a second matchup of the season during the postseason.

Since 2012, Lisbon and Oak Hill have played eight times in the playoffs. The Raiders won the first four during that timeframe, which began with the two teams’ final year in Class C in 2012 (a 28-21 victory for No. 2 Oak Hill over No. 7 Lisbon in the C South quarterfinals).

The next three wins came on the Raiders’ path to three consecutive Class D state titles. And all three rivalry playoff wins were by one point. There was a 21-20 semifinal win in 2013, a 7-6 upset for No. 3 Oak Hill over No. 1 Lisbon in the 2014 D South final, and a 21-20 nail-biter for the top-seeded Raiders over the third-seeded Greyhounds in a regional final rematch in 2015.

The next four postseason matchups featured a different winner each year. Lisbon broke the losing streak in 2016 with a 42-9 win in the D South semis, then the Raiders picked up the biggest playoff upset of the past decade with a muddy 6-0 victory in Lisbon between No. 7 Oak Hill and the No. 2 Greyhounds in the 2017 regional quarterfinals. Lisbon, on its way to a state title, won the 2019 regional semifinal with a runaway 48-20 victory as the No. 2 seed over the third-seeded Raiders. After COVID-19 wiped out the 2020 season, the rivals met again in 2021, with No. 4 Oak Hill edging No. 5 Lisbon 20-19 in the Class D state quarterfinals.

If it happens, the next chapter of the rivalry in the playoffs would take place in Wales, since the Raiders are guaranteed to finish with a higher seed.

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