Hingham Wins Boys' Hockey Division 1 Title

It wasn’t until mid-season that Marshall Terres joined the Hingham boys’ hockey team. When he put on the red hockey sweater earlier this year, it was nearly impossible to measure the impact he would have on a team that was 7-8-1 at one point and struggling to get results.

Flash forward to the final day of the season in March, and Terres was one of the reasons why the Harbormen were holding the Division 1 State Championship trophy after a 3-2 win over the Arlington Catholic Cougars at the TD Garden.

“The team’s been like that all year long, someone steps up and makes a play,” Hingham coach Tony Messina said.

Hingham’s game winner came with 1:21 to play in the third period when Terres tipped in a shot from the point by Dan Shea.

Recovering rebounds and scoring on the tip seemed to be a specialty for Hingham with the tying goal occurring on a similar play during a power play three minutes into the third period. Billy McNally’s rip from the top of the slot was recovered by Shea, who made the most of the rebound.

As frantic as the game ended was how it started. Hingham drew first blood when the puck deflected off of Arlington Catholic’s Anton Metelev, bounce off the crossbar, and was knocked in by Billy McNally only 93 seconds into the game.

Less than a minute later, Ryan Spagnoli set up shop behind the Hingham goal, finding Ryan Tierney just to the left of the net, beating Matt Personeni to tie the game with 12:30 left in the opening quarter.

Unusual deflections would continue to occur and give the Cougars their only lead of the game. Andrew Griffins’ pass across the slot deflected back to him and an open net for a 2-1 lead after two periods.

Personeni picked up 29 saves in the game, including 13 in the third period alone.

“Matt made a ton of great saves when we needed him tonight,” Messina said. “All year long he came up with the save when we needed it.”

Hingham, which entered postseason play as the 10th seed in the south bracket, finishes the year with a 16-8-3 record.