Hopkinton boys lacrosse starts fast, rolls past Kearsarge to D3 championship

EXETER – Every team wants to get out to a fast start in a championship game.

Not many teams have started faster than the Hopkinton High School boys lacrosse team did in Saturday’s Division III title game.

Henry Yianakopolos scored off the opening faceoff just 11 seconds into the game, helping the top-seeded Hawks jump out to a five-goal lead in the first quarter and Hopkinton rolled to a 12-7 win over No. 2 Kearsarge. The win gives the Hawks their first championship since 2011.

“The whole season, my goal is to win faceoffs and push the pace,” Yianakopolos said. “When I win, I use my speed to my advantage and I saw a wide-open middle. If I have the opportunity, if it’s there, I’m going to take a shot and luckily it went in lefty. I haven’t been known much for using my left and to get that off the bat was huge.”

Yianakopolos finished with three goals, as did Liam Flanagan, while Jake Tomlinson and Prince Mansah had two goals a piece, as Hopkinton (17-0) wrapped up an undefeated season. The Hawks led 4-0 before Keasarge got on the board and held a 6-1 lead after one quarter.

“You want to start strong and I think we did just that,” Hopkinton coach Deacon Blue said. “We won a few key faceoffs to start and the guys converted right away. I think we caught them off guard with that first one and then continued to role. Huge to get that lead, get them chasing after us.”

Joe Cullinan and Colby Quiet also had a goal apiece and Derek Amoth made 10 saves.

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“They deserve it,” Kearsarge coach Zach Matthews said. “They beat us three times this year and that’s not an easy thing to do. They came out here and they earned it. They played better than we did.

“We got out to a terrible start. When you get out to a rough start, the other team comes out hot and you’re constantly trying to dig yourself out of a hole, I think it’s too much.”

Justin Norris and Zander Hauck had two goals a piece to lead the Cougars (15-3) while Tom Gallo, Leland Heckel and Tate Nurme scored a goal each. Jakob Arnold made six saves, and after a the rough start, Keasarge finished winning 13 of 21 faceoffs.

Hopkinton led 7-2 at halftime, but Kearsarge was able to get the lead down to three twice in the third quarter. Every time the Cougars appeared to gain some momentum, the Hawks answered with a goal of their own to keep it a four-goal game.

It was a 10-6 lead for Hopkinton with 9:36 left in the quarter when it looked like Kearsarge might get a big break. Tomlinson and Amoth were both called for penalties, not only putting the Hawks down two men, but backup goalie Alex Rousseau had to come off the bench to replace Amoth.

But Kearsarge was only able to get a couple of shots off on the advantage, and neither came close. Rousseau scooped a groundball to give the Hawks possession back and Hopkinton took a timeout with 8:09 remaining to get Amoth back in the game.

“That was huge,” Blue said. “I think it was kind of a head game in our favor. Alex is almost as good a goalie as Derek is and they might have been taking shots they shouldn’t have been. Our defense stepped up knowing Derek wasn’t in and it fueled them and gave them a reason to step up.”

Nurme scored for Kearsarge with 5:43 remaining to make it 10-7, but with the Cougars pressing to get the ball back, Hopkinton was able to take advantage in transition. Yianakopolos found Tomlinson alone next to the cage for a goal that made it 11-7 with 4:10 to play and Flanagan finished it off by scoring with 58.9 seconds left.

“Fourth quarter, 12 minutes left in both of our seasons, you knew they needed four goals to really push,” Yianakopolos said. “No team is going to take it lightly. We noticed that and we knew they were pushing attack, so if we got in transition, if I was able to get the ball down, there’d be a four-on-three opportunity. I found Jake wide open. He’s capable of big things. It feels great.”