LEWISTON — The momentum had completely swung, but Riley Quatrano knew he could get it back for the Lisbon football team.
All he needed was a chance.
“I said ‘If they kick it to me, I’m gone,’ ” he said.
Close enough. Quatrano’s 51-yard kickoff return paved the way for Cam Bourget to score the go-ahead touchdown with 4:42 to play, and No. 2 Lisbon/St. Dom’s beat No. 1 Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale in the Class D South final, 25-15.
It was a rematch of the teams’ earlier matchup, a 49-14 win for the Rambers (8-2). This time, however, the Greyhounds (7-3) had all the answers.
“We saw the whole media doubting us. They came out and just killed us in the regular season,” said Quatrano, who also had three catches for 74 yards, a receiving touchdown and an interception. “It feels good. We love being the underdog.”
Lisbon controlled play for most of the night, but lost the lead when the Ramblers’ Logan Baird scored on a 17-yard run with 6:43 to play, moments after Ryan Baird had infused W/M/H-D’s comeback hopes with a 27-yard catch on a jump ball from Keegan Choate.
The ensuing kickoff went to Quatrano at the 21-yard line, and the senior wove his way through the defense before he was finally hauled down at the W/M/H-D 28.
“I trapped it between the ground, I started to the left, I came back to the middle, I saw a hole and I just took off,” he said.
On the Ramblers’ sideline, coach Dave St. Hilaire knew even before Quatrano began his run that the play hadn’t gone according to plan.
“We don’t want line drive kicks, and that was a line-drive kick,” he said. “They had some big plays on special teams, and that was one of them.”
The Ramblers forced a fourth-and-1, but the officials ruled Justin Le barely made it past the marker on the next run. Two plays later, Bourget rumbled in from 4 yards out, and Seth Leeman (17 carries, 53 yards) ran it in for the conversion to make it 22-15.
The Ramblers had time to answer, but Leeman picked off Choate’s pass and returned it to the 18. Five plays later, Levi Levesque drilled a 30-yard field goal, making it 25-15 and putting the game out of reach with 1:45 to play.
“No hesitating at all,” Lisbon coach Chris Kates said of the call for the field goal. “The snap was a little high, but (holder) Seth Leeman did a good job and Levi punched it through.”
Tied 7-7 at the half, Lisbon jumped ahead 14-7 on a 29-yard touchdown pass from Leeman to Quatrano on fourth-and-5. It continued a theme of the night, as the normally run-first Leeman made one big throw after another en route to five completions on eight attempts for 120 yards passing.
Kates said the plan to go to the air was an in-game adjustment after seeing the Rambler defense. Leeman was happy to get the word.
“I love hearing that,” he said. “I know I can do it, I’ve just got to make my reads and my receivers will make the play.”
The throw was good, but Quatrano’s grab — a finger-tip catch — was too.
“That’s the best ball I’ve ever seen him throw,” Quatrano said. “He comes up in the clutch. That’s the best throwing game I’ve ever seen him have.”
The Ramblers responded two drives later, even when they faced a third-and-19 from their own 47. Choate heaved up a jump ball that Ryan Baird hauled in for a 27-yard gain — outleaping Leeman to get it — and two plays later, Logan Baird found the end zone from 17 yards out.
Ramblers coach Dave St. Hilaire went for the lead and got it, with Choate hitting Ryan Baird on a slant for a 15-14 advantage. Momentum finally belonged to the Ramblers, but it didn’t last long.
“When it came down to it, they made more plays than we did,” St. Hilaire said. “It just didn’t go our way today.”
The Ramblers got off to a fast start, as Beau Schmelzer took the opening kickoff for a 57-yard return to the Lisbon 28-yard line. The Ramblers leaned on Choate to finish the drive, and the quarterback carried five times for 23 yards, the last a 1-yard dive to make it 7-0 at 8:29 of the first quarter.
Lisbon, eschewing the tight formations it used to gash Oak Hill, came out throwing. Leeman found Robbie Dick for 22, Riley Quatrano on a screen for 16 and then Dick again for 24 to the W/M/H-D 19, and Leeman kept it himself two plays later for 15 yards and a touchdown that tied the game at 7 with 5:11 to go in the first quarter.
The Greyhounds moved the ball through the rest of the half, but couldn’t capitalize. Lisbon reached the Ramblers’ 22 and 9 on consecutive series, but turned the ball over on downs the first time and threw an interception on the second.
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