LISBON — Oak Hill’s quest for a fourth straight state championship came to an abrupt halt Saturday as No. 2 Lisbon handed the third-seeded Raiders a 42-9 loss in a Class D South semifinal game.
As the season unfolded, it became evident the Raiders (6-3) were not the team to beat as they dropped regular season games to Winthrop/Monmouth and Lisbon (7-1). Those two teams will meet for the regional championship next weekend in Winthrop.
“Our kids know what we’ve accomplished,” Oak Hill coach Stacen Doucette said. “They’ve all been a part of it, especially this senior group. They’ve had a great career. They played hard today; we got beat by a very good team.”
The Greyhounds led 16-3 at the half as 280-pound fullback Noah Francis pounded the ball inside and quarterback Tyler Halls threw for a touchdown and rushed for another. They owned the third quarter, running 24 plays from scrimmage to Oak Hill’s five and outscoring the Raiders 20-0.
Lisbon coach Dick Mynahan went to a wildcat offense in the third quarter, moving sophomore back Lucas Francis to quarterback and Halls to running back. Francis scored on two short touchdown runs and added a 39-yard TD pass to Halls.
“We’ve practiced it for the last two weeks,” Francis said. “We were just waiting for the right time to bust it out. We knew we were getting the ball back and we wanted to put it away early.”
The Greyhounds took the second half kickoff and drove 62 yards for a score with Francis getting into the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the 6. The Raiders fumbled away the ensuing kickoff and three plays later Francis hit Halls with a perfect strike for a score as he streaked down the right sideline.
“I thought it was overthrown at first,” Halls said. “And I thought the DB was right on me but I got my hands out there and pulled it in.”
The Raiders finally got possession of the ball with five minutes left in the quarter. They unveiled a wildcat offense of their own with back Steve Gilbert moving to quarterback. Two plays into the drive Gilbert faked a handoff, cut right and outraced the defense for a 50-yard touchdown. Earlier in the game, Gilbert kicked a 21-yard field goal.
Lisbon added a score late in the third quarter with the big play of the drive coming on third-and-11 when Tyrese Joseph caught a pass from Francis tipped by an Oak Hill defender. The play went for 21 yards and four plays later, Francis went over from the 2 to make it 36-9.
“I’ve never had a team that practices as hard as this team does,” said Mynahan, who has been at Lisbon for over 40 years. “I had one kid miss his first practice last week. Other than that we’ve been at every single practice. That’s never happened in all my years of coaching.”
Noah Francis led Lisbon with 56 yards on 10 carries, nine in the first half, while Lucas Francis added 53 on 16 carries and Halls rushed for 38 yards. Gilbert led the Raiders with 76 yards on eight carries.
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