April 23, 2023 – Story and photos by Joshua Ross
The annual tournament of the top eight public high school lacrosse programs took place this week culminating this past Saturday in Hingham for the final day of competition. For the second year in a row, Hingham and Lincoln-Sudbury battled it out for the chance to be called Coaches’ Challenge Cup Champion.
This year’s field also included Concord-Carlisle, Winchester, Wellesley, Dover-Sherborn, Bridgewater-Raynham, and Natick. The Harbormen reached the finals by beating Winchester 11-3 and Concord-Carlisle 10-5 earlier in the week.
This year’s final was a rematch from 2022 championship game. Last year’s contest saw the Warriors get out to a quick lead and despite a valiant Harbormen comeback, won the cup 8-7. This year, playing on home turf, Hingham was looking for redemption and the title.
It was a pretty evenly matched first half book-ended by junior goaltender Nate Hoffman making huge saves at both the start and end of the first 24 minutes. Freshman Cam McKenna tied the game at one and senior captain Joe Hennessey tied it at two, but the Warriors took a 3-2 into the second quarter. Each team added only one goal in the second and Lincoln-Sudbury maintained their one goal lead to start the second half.
After the Warriors added one to go up by two, the Harbormen rattled off three in a row from senior captain Charlie Packard, Hennessey, and senior Connor Lasch. LS opened the final frame with a quick goal tying it up again at 6-6, but the trio of Packard, Hennessey, and Lasch rattled off another three in a row to extend their lead to three. The Warriors added two goals in the final minute but this year, time ran out on Lincoln-Sudbury as the Harbormen celebrated their title.
“I was there in 2019 when we lost it and was on the team last year when we lost again and I knew I wasn’t going to get out of high school without this cup in my hand,” Packard said after the game. “It feels really, really good. We have all the respect in the world for that program too, so winning it against them makes it all them more sweet. We’ve been able to tally a few wins together the last few games, but as I said before they are always an amazing opponent so getting a quality win really helps us. Our confidence as a team and some kids personally, getting a big win, a big ground ball or whatever it may be during a game like this really helps a lot.”
With the offense taking a while to get going, the defense and goaltending held down the fort for the first half of the game.
“I couldn’t do anything without my defense,” Hoffman explains in the post game interview. “They were forcing them to take shots I personally feel confidence saving. I feel really comfortable playing behind this team because I know they have my back and I have their back too. They’re a really good team and by having a few momentum (changing) saves, it really got us back in the flow of the game. It helped up establish ourselves because obviously they came on pretty strong in the beginning.”
It’s clear that both teams bring their “A” games when they play each other every year. It’s also clear the mutual respect each program has for their opponents on the other side of the ball. In his award presentation speech, Warriors’ head coach Brian Vona reiterated that sentiment and added “if we can’t win it, there’s no one else we want to have win than you guys.”
Games and wins like this can change the course of a team’s season. The Harbormen are looking to build off this win and carry if forward throughout the season.
“Confidence,” answered Packard when asked about takeaways from the game. “It’s been a theme for our team this year: confidence, confidence, confidence. If you miss a shot, move onto the next one. We are just trying to keep everyone’s spirit high and keep the momentum going.”
The boys will face off against Patriot League opponents Plymouth North and Silver Lake this week before hosting Pinkerton Academy on Saturday at 1:00pm.
GAME PHOTOS
