WINTHROP — Tyrese Joseph wanted to play football for Lisbon as a sophomore. He made that decision after double sessions, which didn’t sit well with Dick Mynahan. Too late, the Greyhounds’s coach said, but you’re welcome to come back next year.

Joseph returned 30 pounds lighter, and that level of fitness and commitment manifested itself in an enormous opening-night performance Friday night at Maxwell Field.

The junior tight end and defensive end made two fumble recoveries, stifled another Winthrop/Monmouth would-be scoring drive with a sack, and caught the winning touchdown from classmate Tyler Halls in a 14-7 Class D South triumph by the Greyhounds.

“Offseason workouts, building up the legs, just getting faster and stronger,” Joseph said of his fitness secrets. “It was sweet, because they’ve been talking a lot. It was a good win.”

Jared Glover set up the winning score, recovering the fourth Winthrop/Monmouth giveaway of the night the Ramblers’ 27-yard line after an ill-fated attempt at a counter crisscross.

Four plays later, one of which was a 16-yard keeper by Halls, the quarterback rolled right and lofted a pass to the front pylon.

Joseph, who was the burly center on Lisbon’s basketball team last winter, played it like an alley-oop and took it away from the Ramblers’ defender.

“The ref said it was interference if he hadn’t caught it,” Mynahan said. “That was a great catch.”

“All 7-on-7 (summer) I’ve been throwing it to him and he’s been going up and getting it. I love him,” Halls added.

On its ensuing drive, linking the third and fourth quarters, Winthrop/Monmouth drove to the Lisbon 12 before Joseph and freshman Lucas Francis ran down Ramblers’ QB Matt Ingram for a 16-yard loss.

Halls knocked down a pass on fourth down, and the Greyhounds gobbled up the next seven minutes with a grind-it-out game that featured mostly dives and bootlegs.

Sacked twice by Andrew Pazdziorko and held to minus-35 net yards in the first half, Halls carried 16 times for 81 yards after intermission.

“That was probably the offense we worked on most of the week. We wanted to use it in the first half, but we knew they would adjust to it,” Mynahan said. “They worked hard all week on it and it seemed to do the trick out there for a while this evening.”

Halls also had a fumble recovery for Lisbon.

“We had two opponents tonight, Lisbon and ourselves, and we lost to both,” Winthrop/Monmouth coach Dave St. Hilaire said. “We’ve got to clean stuff up. We can’t make stupid mistakes. It was strips of guys who don’t typically fumble.”

Winthrop/Monmouth dominated both sides of the line of scrimmage for most of the first half.

Alec Brown capped a 13-play, 83-yard drive with a 3-yard burst up the middle. Tyler Cote’s extra point gave the Ramblers a 7-0 lead with 10:43 left in the half.

Lisbon was in the red, yardage-wise, until Halls hit Henry Adams on a 58-yard slant. Adams broke an arm tackle near midfield before turning on the jets.

Halls’ extra point attempt hit the upright.

His fumble scoop gave the Greyhounds the ball at the Ramblers’ 46 with 1:27 left. Lisbon drove to the 30 before four consecutive passes fell incomplete and Winthrop/Monmouth escaped with a 7-6 edge.

“We made some adjustments in the second half, but we didn’t get the ball enough to exploit it,” St. Hilaire said.

Lisbon ran 17 plays and used up nearly nine minutes without scoring on its opening drive of the half. The Ramblers stopped Joseph three yards shy of the stick at the 19.

Ingram then converted a first down on fourth-and-inches from the Winthrop/Monmouth 29, but Glover took it away on the next play.

“We knew we were going to have a good half. All week long we’ve been preaching that the best teams come out in the second half, and that’s what we did,” Halls said. “This year we’re a lot more defense. We played strong up front and got the job done.”

Noah Francis fought through cramps to carry it 10 times for 34 yards after intermission.

Tanton Mattson is the veteran on a young Lisbon offensive line that answered the bell after a sluggish start.

“I’ll give them credit for putting it out there in the second half and doing a little bit better,” Mynahan said. “This win tonight was a great one for us and a fairly tough loss for them I would think.”

“This is big. Everyone doubted us in this conference. Everyone thought we were going to be weak,” Halls added. “But we’re just as good, maybe even better this year.”

koakes@sunjournal.com