LISBON — Isaiah Thompson took the handoff on Lisbon/St. Dominic’s first play from scrimmage, cut left and sprinted 56 yards to the end zone for a 6-0 lead before some in the crowd had yet to get comfortable in their seats Saturday afternoon at Thompson Field.
The Greyhounds knew it wasn’t going to be that easy against rival Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale. And it wasn’t.
Winthrop and Lisbon slugged it out in the trenches for 48 minutes, with the Greyhounds holding on for a 14-12 victory.
Lisbon (5-1) rushed for 251 yards, led by Thompson’s game-high 167.
“All week we worked on getting to the outside, and on that play it worked,” Thompson said of his opening touchdown, followed by the point-after kick by Devin Marquis.
“It is always good to start a game like that, especially being that I felt we were a little bit flat before and wasn’t sure how we would come out of the gate,” added Lisbon coach Chris Kates. “We knew they had a pretty tough defense and knew it wouldn’t be as easy as that first play.”
Winthrop coach Dave St. Hilaire acknowledged Lisbon’s ground game was tough to stop.
“Their two big weapons are (Thompson) and Lucas (Francis), and when Thompson gets going early he has a good game,” he said. “If you can shut (Thompson) down early, you can keep him in control. To bust out on the first play, looked like we were going to have a long day. They killed us on the jet sweep. We had guys in position to make tackles, and at times we didn’t.”
Winthrop quarterback Keegan Choate completed 13 of his 26 passes for 178 yards.
However, penalties (10 for 85 yards) slowed the Winthrop offense.
“We have quite a few formations, some on the line and some off the line, and we made some mistakes,” said St. Hilaire. “I thought we were the better team, but they made some good plays.”
The Ramblers put together a solid drive in the second quarter. After Jevin Smith recovered a Lisbon fumble at the Winthrop 20-yard line, the Ramblers methodically moved down the field. Running back Ian Steele carried the ball six times on the drive, including a 14-yard touchdown run to get the Ramblers on the board. The point-after kick failed, as Lisbon carried a 7-6 lead into the intermission.
Lisbon closed the third quarter with a solid drive, moving from its 38-yard line to the Winthrop 9. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Francis tossed a touchdown pass to tight end Hunter Job, with Marquis tacking on his second point-after kick for a 14-6 Greyhound lead.
Winthrop followed with a long drive as well. On fourth down from the 1-yard line, Choate fought his way into the end zone on a quarterback sneak. However, his pass on the potential tying 2-point conversion attempt was intercepted by Isaac Burnell to keep the Greyhounds ahead, 14-12, with 5:18 remaining.
“We have to put this one behind us and take care of those mistakes, make tackles, catch passes and not take penalties. We do that, I think we’re OK,” Hilaire said.
Francis chipped in 63 yards on 19 carries for Lisbon and finished 3-of-7 in the air for 21 yards. Seth Leeman deflected four Winthrop passes to lead the defense, with Cam Bourget and Colin Houle each recording six tackles.
Steele paced the Winthrop ground game with 56 yards, with Choate completing passes to six different receivers. Jake Sousa had a game-high 11 tackles.
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