WINTHROP — Seemingly defeated by the improbable, the Lisbon High football team celebrated the impossible.
After surrendering a go-ahead touchdown pass on fourth down with 16 seconds to play, the Greyhounds completed a desperation pass to set up a 1-yard plunge by Noah Francis with less than a second remaining, earning a 20-17 win over previously undefeated Winthrop/Monmouth in the Class D South final Saturday.
A 55-yard completion from Tyler Halls to Kurtis Bolton, after a squibbed kickoff, set up the winning touchdown as the second-seeded Greyhounds (8-1) won their first regional title since 2006.
Dick Mynahan, in his 30th year as Lisbon’s head coach, said he couldn’t remember an ending anything like this one.
“Right now I can’t think of any,” Mynahan said. “I can think of a lot where it came down to the last 30 (seconds), something like that. But never when you just throw it up for grabs. I think this might be the first one. First one’s always the best one.”
Lisbon took over at its 44 after the top-seeded Ramblers (8-1) grabbed the lead on Nate Scott’s 18-yard touchdown reception on fourth-and-12.
“My head was down,” Halls said. “My coach said ‘It’s all good, we’re going to ‘Vanderbilt.’ ‘ That’s our vertical play.”
Halls gave his receiver a chance, hurling the ball downfield where Winthrop/Monmouth defenders gathered to knock it away. The ball somehow made it through the maze of arms and settled into Bolton’s hands, and the senior sprinted toward the end zone before he was hauled down at the 1 with 4.1 seconds left.
The Greyhounds called timeout and sent Francis, their 280-pound fullback, back into the game.
“I knew Noah was going to get in,” Halls said. “He’s the biggest running back in the state, the hardest runner.”
Francis surged ahead, and after being initially stopped, lunged forward a final time for the touchdown with only 0.8 seconds remaining.
The finish somehow overshadowed the preceding drive, which began with 2:09 left after a 3-yard run by Lucas Francis put Lisbon ahead 14-10.
Winthrop/Monmouth quarterback Matt Ingram guided the Ramblers down the field from their 39. On fourth-and-12 from the 18, Ingram ignored the rush, kept his eyes downfield and found Scott crossing over the middle. Scott made a defender miss, shook another and dove into the end zone for the touchdown and a 17-14 lead.
“We called the play in the huddle for the last two plays of our offense,” Ramblers Coach Dave St. Hilaire said. “We didn’t have the right lineup, we kind of drew something up. … The second play, it wasn’t the right call, but he hit Nate and Nate made a play.
“Hell of a game. Unfortunately it wasn’t the result we wanted. We thought we had it.”
The Ramblers led 3-0 at halftime on Tyler Cote’s 29-yard field goal.
Francis put Lisbon ahead with a 1-yard run in the third quarter, but Ingram connected with Bennett Brooks for a 44-yard touchdown that made it 10-8 early in the fourth.
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