Hopkinton boys lacrosse holds off Bishop Brady to advance to D3 semifinals
It’s the playoffs and the Hopkinton High School boys lacrosse team knows its going to have to be prepared for anything in order to keep its season going.
HOPKINTON – It’s the playoffs and the Hopkinton High School boys lacrosse team knows its going to have to be prepared for anything in order to keep its season going.
It took a while for the top-seeded Hawks to do that Friday against No. 8 Bishop Brady, but when opportunity presented itself, they capitalized.
Hopkinton scored seven unanswered goals over the second and third quarters to build an eight-goal lead and withstood a comeback attempt by the Giants in the fourth to win 10-5 in the Division III quarterfinals. The win sends the Hawks to the semifinals for the third straight year, where they will face No. 5 ConVal, which knocked off No. 4 Plymouth 9-8.
Joe Cullinan led the way for Hopkinton (15-0) with five goals and an assist while Liam Tanigan had two goals and two assist and Colby Quiet also scored twice. Gerry Donahue added a goal and Henry Yianikapolos had an assist, while Derek Amoth made 10 saves.
“Brady came out hard and set up in a zone defense, which we weren’t quite used to,” Hopkinton coach Deacon Blue said. “I think they played it really well. They were keeping us to outside and it took us a while to adjust. We were forcing some passes and getting some unnecessary turnovers. We kept at it, guys adjusted, persevered through it. We were able to get cutters going, got a lot of quick passing, and took advantage of broken situations.”
It looked like the Hawks might blow the game open early in the second quarter, after two goals by Tanigan and Cullinan gave them a 5-2 lead. But Bishop Brady’s defense responded, playing its zone defense to perfection while goalie Craig Newcomb came up with nine saves.
“We knew going in that it wasn’t going to be easy, no matter who we play, in the playoffs,” Cullinan said. “The last game, they ran mostly man-to-man, and (Friday), they switched to a zone, which we weren’t expecting. It took us a while but once we got it, we got in a groove and were able to score.”
Newcomb finished with 18 saves while Bryce Johnson had four goals and Rich Sullivan had two assists.
“This is the first game we started in a zone and pretty much stayed in the zone the whole time,” Bishop Brady coach Justin Loring said. “They killed us down low in the last game (a 13-1 win for Hopkinton). They scored so many goals right on the crease. That was our focus, we wanted them to shoot outside and let our goalie see the ball and take advantage of those shots.”
Tanigan scored the first goal of the second half with 8:17 left in the third to make it 6-2, but moments later, it looked like the Giants (8-7) picked up some momentum, when Johnson found the back of the net.
But Johnson was called for being in the crease and the goal was waved off. Hopkinton jumped on the opportunity, as Cullinan scored at the other end 32 seconds later to make it 7-2.
“The toughest was the call in the crease,” Loring said. “We could have made it 6-3, and we actually had a chance to take it back, and we gave it away because of an interference call.”
Instead, Hopkinton added three more goals in the final 4:20 of the quarter to take a 10-2 lead into the fourth.
“Momentum swings like that are huge,” Blue said. “We scored that first goal in the third, the second could have easily gone their way. The whole third quarter, we were able to possess really well. I think the momentum was on our side and riding them really hard, keeping them from getting the ball, which we talked about at halftime.”
Hopkinton will take on ConVal for the second time this season, as the Hawks beat the Cougars 12-4 on April 21. That game is scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Laconia High School, following the other semifinal between No. 3 Monadnock and No. 2 Kearsarge.
