HINGHAM — Great teams find ways to capitalize when given a chance.
Trailing by two goals in the final quarter Thursday night, that is precisely what Hingham’s boys lacrosse program did.
Junior attackman Cam McKenna registered a hat trick, while senior captain Colin Lasch sniped the game-winning goal with 1:45 left as the Harbormen overcame a late deficit for a thrilling 6-5 victory over Marshfield.
“I think (Marshfield) gave us all we could handle,” said Hingham coach John Todd. “We had to make some adjustments, and we had to scratch and claw for everything we got. It took us two and a half, three quarters to even figure out the bare minimum to be successful. Like I said, they made us better tonight. I give them a ton of credit.”
The local rivals entered Thursday’s tilt in lockstep. Hingham (11-1) was seeded sixth in the MIAA’s first set of Div. 2 power rankings this week. Marshfield (7-4) was in eighth. It took nearly six minutes of game action for its first tally, as McKenna fired a laser into the net to give Hingham a 1-0 lead with 6:01 to go in the frame.
However, Marshfield answered, as Jon Sullivan netted the equalizer to make it 1-all 1:29 later.
The score would hold going into the second quarter, as senior captain Colin Lasch provided Hingham a 2-1 edge with a goal 44 ticks into the stanza.
During a man-up sequence, Marshfield drew even once again with 2:32 left in the half as Sullivan ripped a shot top-shelf for his second goal.
The tie was short-lived. Hingham snagged the lead right back off a goal from Patty Browne 26 seconds later, making it a 3-2 contest at intermission.
Once the second half got underway, Marshfield flipped the game on its head. Sullivan sniped two more tallies, while classmate Charlie Carroll found the cage himself as the Rams rattled off three unanswered goals to seize a 5-3 lead entering the final quarter.
But Marshfield was called for a penalty, and Hingham took advantage as McKenna buried a man-up goal to cut things to 5-4. He would register his third 22 seconds later, tying things at 5-all with 5:30 to play.
“We were trying to not get down on ourselves, stay positive,” McKenna said. “To get that momentum swing back, from them having the big swing like that with taking the lead on us? It was huge.”
With the game hanging in the balance, Lasch fired a bullet into the net for the go-ahead tally. Marshfield had one final gasp, but Ben Brazis made a clutch save at the horn to preserve Hingham’s latest win.
“We know that the Hingham-Marshfield rivalry has been going on for a while now,” said Lasch. “This game was no different. They brought it to us. We give a lot of credit to them. We didn’t know what hit us, but we came together toward the end.”