Hingham Boys' Lax Beaten 10-9 in Triple Overtime

The No. 3 Hingham High School boys’ lacrosse team had battled No. 2 Concord-Carlisle High School for four quarters of regulation to a 9-all tie to force overtime on Tuesday.

Almost 16 minutes of extra play had elapsed, with shots going wide, shots being saved and shots getting turned over, until there was 1 minute, 34 seconds remaining in the third overtime. C-C junior Kevin Delehey had the ball, he ran up the field, and, finally, a C-C shot went in. He closed it out for the Patriots, scoring the game-winner in their 10-9 victory in the MIAA East Division 2 Semifinals.

“To be here today, I’m happy. I couldn’t be any happier,” said Hingham coach John Todd.

“I’m so proud of these guys. From where we were at this time last year … we graduated 14 seniors last year, all gone off to phenomenal programs, they carried this team and we took it to double overtime last year at Harvard and stepping into this year we knew we had so many, so many holes to fill and we just didn’t know where we were going to get answers from.”

“We have four seniors, we play four freshmen, we put everybody in new positions except we returned a goalie, a middie and a defenseman and everybody else is brand new from last year.”

Concord-Carlisle led throughout much of the game and held a 9-6 advantage in the middle of the fourth quarter after three unanswered goals, but Hingham never backed away, scoring three goals right after to tie it 9-all and get the overtime.

Freshman Caleb Brodie scored from the left wing, sophomore David Freitas netted his first with junior Karl Weller assisting and junior captain Kevin Blair ran from behind the net and threw in from the left side.

“That’s what we’ve, not necessarily been doing, but we knew we were capable of doing that and the kids stood tall and that’s another reason that we’re so proud of them,” Todd said regarding the come-from-behind goals.

“That we’re rolling freshmen, freshmen are clearing the ball, shooting, doing everything, so it’s a matter of, kids that have never been in this position before, have never been asked to play at this level against a good quality unbelievable program like that and they stepped up and pushed it to the limit.”

Concord-Carlisle led 5-3 going into the half.

C-C junior Jackson Finigan made two shot attempts around the 10-minute marker in the second quarter; the first went above the net and the second Hingham senior goalkeeper Derek McInnis swept up. But Finigan got his goal at 7:09 as he wrapped around the net and put in a shot as he was falling to the turf. That put C-C up 2-1.

Then, at 6:34, junior Mike O’Brien added C-C’s third goal running up the middle for the score.

But just as C-C was putting in shots, Hingham came firing back with two of their own.

With 5:00 left in the second, junior Reed McLeod scored from senior captain Tim Driscoll’s assist. And at 4:15, Driscoll netted his own from in front of the crease to tie it 3-all.

Then C-C responded by putting two in the net. O’Brien scored at 2:23, with help from senior Matt Carroll in front of the net, and junior Chris Walker-Jacks made it a 5-3 game, scoring from the left wing with just 0:56 remaining before halftime.

In the third quarter, C-C finished with a one-goal advantage at 7-6, after goals from senior Brendan Gay and Carroll. But Hingham outscored the Patriots in the quarter, sending in three – two from junior captain Kevin Blair and one from junior Karl Weller with Blair assisting.

C-C then gained momentum in the start of the fourth, netting two goals to make it 9-6 in their favor. Carroll scored at 11:59, and, at 9:25, Finigan threw in a shot from the ground in a tangled crew of Hingham players.

But, just as before, Hingham rattled back, scoring three for the 9-all tie.

In the final minutes of regulation, Hingham was earning draws, then C-C was stealing, but McInnis was saving shots as the clock ticked below 1 minute remaining in regulation.

“Awesome,” Todd said of McInnis’ performance in goal. “The overtime saves again too.”

With 9 seconds left, C-C ran up the field and shot, but the ball went wide and it was into first overtime.

“(Concord-Carlisle) is a great team. We battled them, they kicked our (butts) during the regular season and we knew we had our hands full and we knew that it was going to take four quarters.

“We didn’t know it was going to take four quarters and three overtimes, but that was just the nature of the beast.”