READFIELD

Just as their nickname implies they should, the Greyhounds came storming out of the gates Friday night.

Lisbon scored three touchdowns on its first six plays, and tallied two more before halftime to ease to a 36-0 win over Maranacook in a Class D South football game at Ricky Gibson Field of Dreams.

A slow start doomed the Greyhounds (1-1) last week in a 31-12 loss to Winthrop/Monmouth. That wasn’t a problem in week two. After stuffing a Black Bears (0-2) punt before it started on the opening drive, Lisbon needed just three plays and 28 yards for Noah Francis to open the scoring.

Three Maranacook plays and a strip-sack later, Jared Glover ran in from 13-yards out on Lisbon’s next play to make it 14-0.

“We’re known for slow starts,” Lisbon coach Dick Mynahan said. “We talked about that, we were hoping to get off a little bit faster tonight. Thought the kids really came well-focused tonight.”

Tyrese Joseph blocked a punt to close out the Black Bears’ next drive, then Lucas Francis rumbled up the right sideline one play after getting called for holding for a third Greyhound touchdown.

“We knew we had to come back strong and make a statement to the league,” Noah Francis said. “We came out early, we came out of the gate and played hard, and the outcome was good for us.”

The ball never made it out of the Black Bears’ end in the first quarter, thanks to the Greyhounds’ defense and special teams.

“A couple of punt blocks there make a big difference in a game I think, and we had really great field position,” Mynahan said.

Lisbon began its opening drive of the second quarter in its own end, but 11 plays later Tyler Halls ended the drive the same way it started — with a quarterback keeper. The latter was for a 1- yard touchdown, then Halls hit Joseph for the 2-point conversion pass to make it 28-0.

Noah Francis completed the scoring with a 12-yard TD run, complete with a brush-off stiff arm of a Maranacook defender on his way to the end zone. Kurtis Bolton scored on the 2-point conversion run to get the score over the 35-point threshold for a running clock in the second half.

The Greyhounds’ second units on offense and defense finished the job in the second half, with the defense holding onto the shutout.

“It was a tough loss last week, and it was good to get our confidence up this week,” Noah Francis said.

The Black Bears finally completed a play for more than 10 yards on the game’s final drive. Drew Davis, Maranacook’s most productive back, ran for 19 yards. Davis ran the ball 18 times for the Black Bears.

Noah Francis led Lisbon with six rushes for 73 yards and two scores. Lucas Francis ran six more times for 58 yards, Glover carried it three times for 27 yards, and Tristen Bard took it four times for 16 yards.

Isaiah Thompson and Bradley Harriman led the second unit offense for the Greyhounds.