Monmouth scored on a throw-in that deflected off of a Lisbon defender and into the net early in the first half, and made it stand up for a 1-0 victory on an unseasonably warm afternoon at Chick Field.

It is the first regional title for top-seeded Monmouth (14-1-2) since it won the second of back-to-back Class D titles in 2000. The Mustangs will face Washington (17-0) in the state final at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Hampden Academy.

Third-seeded Lisbon, which was making its first appearance in a regional final, finishes 10-4-3.

Senior midfielder Hunter Richardson made the fateful throw-in not far from the back line 9:29 into the game. The throw went over Lisbon goalie Jonah Sautter and off of a Lisbon defender before going into the net.

“We knew that Jonah is an aggressive goalkeeper. Our biggest player, Travis Hartford, he did well blocking his view,” Richardson said. “I figured I’d throw it to the goalie, make him have to make the play. If it gets loose, somebody will be right there to tap it in. I happened to throw it over his head and one of their players put a touch on it, so it counted.”

Wednesday was the third time the Mustangs have had a throw-in go off an opposing defender and in for a goal. Things are always chaotic in front of the net on a close throw-in or corner kick, so having the 6-foot-2 Hartford there to either get his head on the ball or at least make things more difficult for the goalie is an advantage that they tried exploiting on several occasions Wednesday.

“Coach wants me to stand in front of the goalie so I could block the goalie’s vision to the ball. That play, it happened to work,” Hartford said. “I jump and try to skim it if I can, but if not, I just let it go through and hope somebody is on the far post.”

“It was a big lift,” Richardson said. “Knowing that they’d played Waynflete (in the semifinals) and held them to a shutout, we knew we were going to be in for a challenge and getting that first goal would be big.”

Lisbon coach Dan Sylvester said his veteran team knew it had its work cut out for it against a Monmouth team that went into the game with nine shutouts and had beaten the Greyhounds, 2-1, in the regular season.

“It’s tough to say how the goal affected us because our tempo wasn’t up a whole lot in the beginning,” he said. “I mean, of course I think it did take a little bit out of our sails, but we told them don’t worry about it. There’s plenty of time. Be patient. We’ve been there before. I think they were a little bummed out that it was an own goal, but that’s one of those things that happens.”

“It took pressure off of us and it forced them to come out of that defensive shell a little bit,” Monmouth coach Joe Fletcher said. “It allowed us to create more opportunities. Even though we didn’t score, we generated all kinds of chances.”

Monmouth had most of the opportunities in the aftermath of the goal. Leading scorer Avery Pomerleau led one rush and centered to Richardson for a good chance that Richardson booted wide right. Later in the half, Pomerleau just missed wide after a good cross in front from Mat Foulke set him up with an open net.

The Greyhounds finally started generating sustained pressure on Monmouth goalie Bradley Neal (eight saves) in the final five minutes of the first half. Neal made a leaping save on Ryley Austin’s free kick late in the first half, then made a couple of left-handed deflections to deny Greyhounds bidding for the far post early in the second half.

“I feel like there is a little bit more pressure on me (with an early lead), but I have a great defense in front of me,” Neal said. “If I didn’t have the defense in front of me that I do, I would worry a lot more.”

Backs Nick Dovinsky and Shane Kenniston had some timely clearouts in front of the net, such as when Neal collided with a Lisbon player while knocking away a Bradley Boulet shot with a little more than 15 minutes remaining.

 “I thought we were a little on our heels in the first half,” Sylvester said. “In the second half, we changed up a little bit and pushed Josh Houston up a little bit more, and that got us a little spark going. We played well in the second half. We threw what we could at them, and it wasn’t enough to get the job done.”

“It was like a boxing match where the teams were feeling each other out for the first 40 minutes and then the pace picked up quite a bit in the second half,” Fletcher said. “Dan subbed more than I did in the first half, and I subbed just two players in the second half. We’ve worked real hard on conditioning and it showed because the nine players that didn’t come out, they didn’t show that they were slowing down.”

The Mustangs had enough energy left to test Sautter in the second half for eight of his 14 saves, and then celebrate the state championship berth that had eluded them for so long.

“It feels good to finally get there,” Hartford said. “Let’s see what we can do now that we’re there.”