LISBON — The weather may have been erratic Saturday afternoon at Thompson Field, but there was nothing inconsistent about the Lisbon High School football team’s offense.

The Greyhounds put on a clinic in ball control amidst passing rain showers, bursts of sunshine and strong wind gusts on their way to a 30-11 victory over Maranacook in a key Campbell Conference Class D showdown.

Maranacook quarterback Kyle Morand is stopped by a wall of Lisbon defenders during a Campbell Conference Class D game Saturday at Thompson Field in Lisbon. Staff photo by Evan Crawley

Lisbon (4-2) went 6-for-6 on fourth down conversions and held a commanding edge in both time of possession (31:35-16:07) and offensive plays (66-36). Junior quarterback Tyler Halls paced the Greyhounds, completing 8-of-12 passes for 68 yards and a pair of touchdown strikes to Tyrese Joseph. He also added 42 yards rushing on nine carries. Zach Lacasse totaled 129 yards on 13 carries for the Black Bears (4-2), who were limited to just 187 yards for the game.

“It took us a little bit too long to see what worked and what didn’t,” Maranacook head coach Joe Emery said. “…We just need to get better this week. Our inability to pick up some stunts really killed us, as far as running. Something that we had covered with the ‘backers that they were doing, my tight ends and wings didn’t figure it out, so we’ll work on that this week and go play hard at Dirigo. We’re a much better team at home.”

The game started out promisingly enough for the Black Bears. A running into the kicker penalty on fourth-and-3 extended the opening possession and one play later, Lacasse darted around his downfield blockers on his way to a 56-yard gain down to the Lisbon 3-yard line.

The drive would only yield a 22-yard field goal from Ty Smith, though, as the Greyhounds defense held. It would prove to be the only fruitful drive of the half for the Black Bears as the home team took over from there.

Lisbon mounted a 15-play, 50-yard drive over a span of 7:25 that Noah Francis capped off with an 11-yard touchdown run. On the drive, the Greyhounds converted fourth downs of 1 and 6 yards.

After a three-and-out from Maranacook it appeared the Black Bears would get the ball right back after forcing Lisbon into a fourth-and-7 at its own 27-yard line. Halls — who is also the team’s punter — faked the punt, though, and turned it into a crushing 20-yard gain.

“I knew they’d get the right blocks,” Halls said. “On that punt I just went for it.

“…Fourth down, that’s a big part of the game and that makes a big difference.”

The Greyhounds were in the end zone again 13 plays and another fourth down conversion later when Halls found Joseph over the middle for a 19-yard touchdown strike with 2:41 to play in the opening half.

Maranacook’s ensuing drive quickly stalled and Lisbon made sure to make the Black Bears pay after Halls returned the punt down to the 25-yard line with 1:18 to go. Exactly one minute later Halls hit Joseph again — this time from 12 yards away — to give the Greyhounds a commanding 22-3 lead at the half.

“The kids delivered, especially the first half,” Lisbon coach Dick Mynahan said. “We’re getting a little bit better every week. I thought last week was our best and (Saturday) the first half was as good as I’ve seen in a long time.”

Lisbon opened the second half with more of the same, mounting a 15-play, 69-yard drive that Henry Adams capped off with a 9-yard rush to make it 30-3 with 4:36 to play in the third quarter. From Lacasse’s long run to Adams’ touchdown, Maranacook had the ball for all of 4:35 and was limited to 14 yards of offense.

“We just tried to adapt to what they were doing,” Mynahan said. “They’ve got some really good ball players out there. They’re big, strong kids and we thought we wanted to do some more work on the outside because we thought after watching last week’s film they’d be cutting off the middle for Noah. Other kids had to step up.”

Evan Crawley — 621-5640

ecrawley@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Evan_Crawley

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