H.S. Football: Greyhounds overcome penalties, grind to 20-14 win over Raiders

Lisbon’s Isaiah Thompson soars through the air towards the end zone to score a touchdown against Oak Hill.

LISBON — Perhaps Lisbon was feeling charitable Saturday. That would explain why it needed to overcome 15 penalties to rally past Oak Hill, 20-14.

Officials were throwing pink flags to raise awareness for breast cancer, and the Greyhounds were doing their part by getting penalized for 163 yards. The markers showed up early and often and were all too apparent to Lisbon coach Chris Kates, even through the dust bowl that was Thompson Field on a warm and sunny day.

“We need to clean the penalties up,” Kates said. “That’s something that hurt us last week down in Wells (in a 36-6 loss), and here, as well. We’ve been having way too many red zone penalties and penalties in general.”

Lisbon (7-1) used a three-pronged running attack to churn out 301 yards and rally from a 14-0 deficit.

Quarterback Lucas Francis led the way with 139 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries. Isaiah Thompson added two touchdowns and 76 yards on 18 carries. Cam Bourget had 16 carries for 64 yards.

Oak Hill (3-4) jumped out to a 14-0 lead on a pair of touchdown passes by freshman quarterback Gavin Rawstron to senior wide receiver Darryn Bailey.

The first was 62-yard bomb down the right sideline. The second, from 8 yards, was a fade that the leaping Bailey grabbed between two Lisbon defenders with 6:57 left in the first half.

During a timeout before the second touchdown, Kates asked his players how many more yards they wanted to give up for free. A couple of their nine first-half penalties thwarted two Greyhound drives deep into Oak Hill territory before they finally got on the board on Francis’ 3-yard TD run with 5:12 to go in the half that made it 14-6, which is where it stood at halftime.

A 41-yard run by Francis highlighted the Greyhounds’ first drive of the third quarter, which Thompson capped with a five-yard touchdown run. He also ran in the two-point conversion for a 14-14 tie.

“Their ability to run the ball (was the difference in the second half),” Oak Hill coach Stacen Doucette said. “They were very physical in the second half.”

Lisbon overcame a holding penalty on what turned out to be the game-winning drive. After the penalty pushed them back from the 6 on first-and-goal, the offensive line opened up a huge hole for Thompson to run through up the middle for a 14-yard touchdown that gave the Greyhounds the first and only lead they would need with 8:44 left.

“I was pretty happy with Isaiah. I think this is probably the hardest he’s run all year,” Kates said.

“I wanted to run hard today for our seniors, and the offensive line did a great job blocking. It was a big hole,” Thompson said.

The Raiders drove into Lisbon territory on all four of their second-half possessions, but didn’t score.

Liam Rodrigue came up just short on a 30-yard field goal attempt on the first. The second stalled near midfield. On the third, Rawstron was stopped for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the 34.

Lisbon made two stops on the Raiders’ fourth try to tie or go ahead, both interceptions by Robbie Dick. The first was negated by a pass interference penalty. The second, which came with 2:24 left, held up (although Lisbon was still flagged for a block in the back on the return).

“I’m real happy for Robbie being able to redeem himself,” Kates said. “I got on him earlier in the game after a couple of dumb penalties on his part. But he’s a young kid, only a sophomore and is going to make mistakes like that, but I was happy to see him make a big play for us, twice.”

“We moved Lucas Francis to double-team Bailey,” Kates said. “If they were going to beat us through the air, I wanted it to be someone else.”

Thompson and Francis drained the rest of the clock with first-down runs.

Rawstron finished 8-for-20 for 169 yards, two touchdowns and the interception. Lisbon limited the Raiders to 8 net yards rushing.

Despite the loss, Oak Hill has earned the No. 8 seed in the D South playoffs and will face No. 1 Wells in the quarterfinals next week. Lisbon, the No. 3 seed, will host No. 6 Winthrop/Monmouth next Saturday.