LISBON — The two goals that Mt. Abram scored in the first half gave the Roadrunners just enough breathing room to come away with a 3-1 Mountain Valley Conference victory over the feisty Lisbon Greyhounds in a high school girls soccer game Monday. 

“I thought we played a better-connected ball, where the outsides were more connected with my OCM (outside center midfielder) and we splashed the ball out better than we had for a while,” Mt. Abram coach Andrew Delcourt said. “I also liked the way they were attacking the free kicks, whether it be a goal kick or a free kick way back in the area. I thought we were very optimistic and on the ball for those.” 

Mt. Abram (5-1-1) owned the first half and produced a pair of goals that slowed down the Greyhounds (1-3) on offense. But the second half was a different story. 

Roadrunners strike 

Freshman Olivia Roderick scored unassisted when she put the ball past Lisbon goalie Sarah Haggerty (nine saves) at 19:02. 

A little more than 10 minutes later, senior River Horn used an assist from Camryn Wahl and scored, putting the Roadrunners ahead by two. 

“River got two goals and I thought she played pretty good,” Delcourt said. “That was her first two goals of the season, and I had a talk with her before the game and I said, ‘You need to step up today,’ and she really, really did.” 

“I think we did good,” Horn said. “I think we had a good first half. We are usually a second-half team. We kind of dropped in the second half. I think we got a little too confident, but we kept it together.  

“Last year, we had a really physical game and I think they were a lot better with that. It was more of a clean game.” 

But the Greyhounds didn’t wilt in the muggy heat and appeared to shrug off Mt. Abram’s 2-0 lead in the second half. 

Lisbon began pressing and spending a lot of time in front of the Mt. Abram net — and the Greyhounds’ persistence paid off. 

Senior Siara Martin lofted her shot from 30-yards out over the head of Mt. Abram sophomore goalie Emily Kidd, who came out just a little too far to stop the shot with 13 minutes left in the game. 

Martin’s goal gave Lisbon’s offense a wake-up call, and the Greyhounds did everything they could to score again. 

“It is really hard to keep us collected when we have so many injuries and no bench to fill,” Lisbon coach said Jenniffer Perron, whose lack of numbers on her bench allows for little flexibility. “There are no fresh legs.” 

With less than five minutes left in the game, the Roadrunners were battling back on offense and took a shot that Haggerty tried to stop. But the ball got away from her and another Lisbon player who tried intervene ended up putting the ball into the net. It was ruled an own goal and Horn was given credit for the score because she was closest to the play. 

“It was already in; it would have been anyway,” Perron said. “It was just unfortunate, and we just need to regroup, come back strong and the season is still early. We can definitely recover from this.” 

That goal put the Roadrunners up 3-1 and they basically took a defensive posture to run the clock out. 

Lisbon visits Spruce Mountain on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. 

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