Hingham Moves On To Play Norwell

Hingham High School is moving on to the quarter finals of the MIAA Boys Soccer South Division 2 tournament after dominating Foxborough, 4-0 on Monday afternoon.

No.4 Hingham Harbormen scored a pair of goals in both halves against No. 13 Foxborough as they cruised to an easy tournament victory.

Next, Hingham will play No. 5 Norwell on Wednesday at home.

Hingham Head Coach Ken Carlin referred to the Harbormen as a "procession team" and said Monday's game proved critics who’ve been calling the team “pretty” or “finesse” to be wrong.

“We believe in knocking the ball around and attacking,” Carlin said after the game.

The Harbormen set the tone early with a goal in the second minute of play to take a quick lead. Brian Blanchard was able to beat the defense coming down the left wing for a momentum building score.

“It’s good when you score a goal because it sort of sets up the other team to think ‘Oh boy here we go.’ So it creates momentum for your team and maybe a lack of momentum for the other team," said Carlin.

The Harbormen continued to attack the net hard. Levi Durger scored from the far right off the left post to extend the lead to two in the 15^th minute of play.

The Warriors best chance to score in the first half came off a Sawyer Fleck free kick from the top of the penalty arch in the 31^st minute. A good shot by Fleck was stopped by an even better save by Hingham goalkeeper Ben Fisher to keep the Warriors off the board.

The second half was no better for the Warriors. After a shot by Blanchard hit the crossbar in the 47th minute of play, Craig Hildreth was able to recover the ball and get it to James Rosso who snuck it past the Foxborough defense. The move took the Warriors a bit by surprise.

”We haven’t seen anyone throw moves like that in a couple years, honestly,” said Foxborough coach Pat Nash.

The Harbormen remained cool and collective on defense. Not letting many chances get by them, the Harbormen maintained control of the ball before things could get out of control.

“Even the wing forwards comes back and play defense when we don’t have the ball and everybody is willing to play the ball back to the defense before there is a lot of trouble. They’re composed enough to play across the back so they’re not in a rush to just knock it forward,” said Carlin.

A final goal by Blanchard in the 57th minute gave the Harbormen a 4-0 lead and a ticket to the quarterfinals.

Despite the bad loss, the season as a whole for Foxborough was a success compared to last year.  The one win team from last year was nowhere to be found with this year’s success story.

For Higham, Coach Carlin likes his chances against Norwell on Wednesday.

The Harbormen will host Norwell in their quarterfinal round match on Nov. 9^th at 2:30 p.m.