FARMINGDALE — It seemed, for a brief moment, that the No. 8 seeded Lisbon boys soccer team could hang with No. 1 Hall-Dale.
Then, the Bulldogs scored their second goal. Then their third.
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Eventually, Hall-Dale played like, well, Hall-Dale, as the top-ranked Bulldogs beat the Greyhounds 7-0 in their Western Class C quarterfinal game Wednesday.
Hall-Dale (14-0-1) will play Mt. Abram in the semifinals Saturday.
Nat Crocker scored an early goal to give Hall-Dale a 1-0 lead, but Lisbon (6-9-1) stayed in the game for much of the half. Finally, with two minutes left in the half, Crocker made a crossing pass to Steve Longfellow, who promptly knocked the ball past Greyhounds goalkeeper Nate Bergeron to push the Bulldogs lead to 2-0.
“I thought Lisbon did a great job for the first 20 minutes,” Hall-Dale head coach Andy Haskell said. “They did a real good job covering their lanes, they were real sound defensively. They took away a lot of our ability to be creative in the attacking third because they were well prepared today.”
Spencer Shagoury added a goal with seven seconds left in the half to give Hall-Dale a 3-0 lead.
“Once you get that third goal, it’s a different game,” Haskell said.
Added Lisbon coach Dan Sylvester: “We tried to play up to their speed, we knew they were faster and their depth and skill were a lot deeper than ours. Those couple of goals, down 3-0 (in the first half) kind of spoiled the whole thing. Those last two goals took the wind out of our sails.”
Hall-Dale received an offensive jolt from senior Colin Lush in the second half. Lush scored three consecutive goals in a 13 minute span, the most impressive was his second, a header that made it 5-0.
“I’m one of the tallest kids out there, so I have that advantage,” Lush said. “I tried to shadow people in the box and look for those headers.”
Added Haskell: “When (Lush) picked it up, he can play fantastic. He showed his abilities out there, especially after our first goal and for the next 40 minutes, he was fantastic.”
Up 6-0, Haskell replaced the starters with 20 minutes left. Noah Smith added an insurance goal with 12 minutes left.
The Bulldogs took 34 shots and kept the ball in the Lisbon end for much of the game. Lisbon managed just eight shots. The shutout was the 11th of the season for Hall-Dale, which has allowed just four goals. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, have scored 110.
Dave Dyer — 621-5639
ddyer@centralmaine.com
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