April 11, 2022 - Story and photos by Joshua Ross
The Hingham boys lacrosse team is off to a 2-0 start on the season. After taking care of Whitman-Hanson on Thursday afternoon 18-0, they faced a tougher opponent in the Needham Rockets on Saturday at home. This was a match-up of two of the top public school programs in the state and an early test for Coach John Todd and his players.
While the Harbormen jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on senior captain Henry Crean’s goal, the Rockets came right back and tied it up shortly after. Even though each team scored quickly to open the game, the first half was a good defensive battle. Hingham ended the first half with a 3-2 lead after being down two men due to penalties in the final minutes of the half.
Hingham found their rhythm in the second half and opened up the lead with goals from Crean (x2), juniors Chase McKenna and Joe Hennessey, and senior captain Cian Nicholas in the third quarter giving the Harbormen the 8-2 lead to start the final frame. Hennessey added his third of the day and junior Connor Lasch netted his first varsity goal to round out the scoring giving Hingham the 10-4 win.
“These games are always tough and it’s going to be a matter of match-ups,” Todd said after the game. “Dave (Wainwright) does an unbelievable job with these guys and their defense is top in the state, by far. We knew we were going to have our hands full. It took us a while to feel it out. We are only a week in, I’ll attribute some of it to that, but they made it a game through and through.”
Even with just two games in, the boys will face weeks where the competition level is extremely different game to game. Coach Todd addresses they way he keeps the energy level and focus constant, regardless of who they are facing.
“For us, there are a lot of nonnegotiable’s on things of what expectations are, no matter who we are playing,” he explains. “And we maintain those and we demand those because one day you could have a team that’s just not there yet or situation where the game gets to that point, even against a really good team like this one. It was out of reach for them with probably six or seven minutes to go. We still have to maintain our nonnegotiable’s, because if not, kids will be kids and they try things and it either puts them in dangerous situation or it’s not going to make us as strong as we should be. You have to be patient. You have to be smart. You have to care for the ball. All those sort of things.”
In addition to the variety of scorers and the outstanding goaltending from senior Niko Decola, one of the things that stood out on the stat sheet was the face-off wins from sophomore Rocco Egan, who as 11-15 on the day.
“In this sport, that’s the end all be all,” answered Todd when asked about the importance of winning face-offs. “If you have a face-off guy that can dominate, the scales are tipped so far in your advantage, that if you can take advantage of even half of those, teams are so in the hole, it’s not even funny. We are lucky to have him (Egan). He works extremely hard at it. He’s getting stronger and bigger, thankfully, and we can keep pushing him up to the dinner table. He wrestled this year and got more of a grappling mentality, which hats off to Coach Canniff and the wrestling team for developing a portion of his game that always needs developing.”
The boys are away for two games this week at North Quincy and Simsbury before participating in the Coach’s Cup Tournament next week. Next home game is on 4/26 vs Plymouth South.
Game Photos
