EXETER - The opposing coach and the game-winning goal scorer himself both felt he may have been offsides, but all that matters is what the refs called.

There was no whistle and Austin Hammer finished the play with a goal to give No. 2 Derryfield of Manchester a 2-1 win over top-seeded and undefeated Lisbon in the Division IV high school boys' soccer championship at Bill Ball Stadium on Sunday.

It was a close play as Hammer made a nice run down the right wing.

Jared Schoneberger served a ball over the top of the Panther defense, which was pulling out of its zone with an offsides trap. Hammer ran by the defenders, collected the ball, cut into the penalty box and ripped a shot past Lisbon goalie Josh Deem (3 saves) for what ended up being the game winner with 18:55 remaining.

"I felt like I was kind of offsides," Hammer said. "But then I didn't hear the whistle so I just kept going."

Panther coach Les Poore said it looked like Hammer was offsides from his vantage point, which was across the field.

"We pulled up and the guy went over the top on us, so we kind of hesitated," Poore said. "We should have played the ball but he was so far offsides that we hesitated and that's exactly what led to him walking in like that."

Lisbon (19-1) struck first on its third corner kick of the game.

The ball was served into the penalty box where it pinballed around off a couple of players to Derek Roberts, who touched it past Cougar goalie Lucas McCabe (1 save) and into the net to make it 1-0 with 2:24 left before the break.

There was a lot of back-and-forth action in the first half. Chad Knighton did a good job working up front for Lisbon and the Cougars (18-2) used a lot of one and two touches to move the ball around in their offensive end.

Then Derryfield went into shutdown mode in the second half, when it outshot the Panthers 14-1 and held a 7-1 advantage in corner kicks over the final 40 minutes.

They got their first goal when Noah Goldstein fed Matt Milne at the top of the box. Milne caught Deem off guard with a quick shot that snuck into the corner of the net to tie it up, 1-1, with 30:45 left to play.

The chances kept coming for Derryfield. Jack St. Jean put a great opportunity over the goal with 22 minutes left, and then Schoneberger set Hammer up with the winner.

"We really stepped it up in the second half," Hammer said. "There was just something about our game in the second half that was so much better.