New attack paces Hingham boys

Two weeks ago, Hingham boys lacrosse coach John Todd and his staff approached sophomore William Kenney, asking him to take a crack at a position he had never played before. Somewhere in a loss to Duxbury, assistant coach Pat McCavanaugh noticed something that could change the Harbormen’s attacking fortunes.

“He played middie and defensive middie for us all last year,” Todd said. “So he’s on the field a lot. And we just needed a big target inside with softer hands, and he’s really kind of blossomed.”

The move worked yesterday, as the sophomore scored four goals and Hingham erupted for 10 second-half tallies in a 15-7 win at Needham. “This is actually my first time playing attack,” Kenney said. “(Mc- Cavanaugh) just said: ‘Kenney, we’d like you at attack, maybe add some size,’ And it’s worked out.”

Needham sophomore and Boston University commit Jason Child (four goals) got the scoring started, trading goals with Kenney throughout the first two quarters. The tilt appeared to have all the makings of a memorable shootout entering halftime, with the Harbormen and the Rockets knotted 5-5.

“It wasn’t that we were doing anything wrong,” Todd said. “We just needed to stick to the gameplan. They kind of know what we’re going to bring to the table, we kind of know what they’re going to bring to the table. And if you try to vary, to do something that we were not necessarily not practicing, but don’t want to bring out today, it clearly is not going to work.”

Led by Jack Hennessey, the Harbormen (17-3) pulled away from the Rockets (15-3) in the second half. Within a span of four minutes, Hingham pushed the lead to 9-5. Hennessey eventually tied Kenney with a game-high four goals, with junior Ryan Hill adding two more.

“I think it’s one of our biggest games,” Kenney said. “It’s a great win.”

Eric Civetti had six goals as Franklin (16-3) beat Newton North, 9-6, in a nonleague matchup. ... Drew Rennie and Shawn Rice each netted hat tricks as Weymouth (108) clipped Abington, 10-9.

Girls lacrosse

Brooke Baker netted four goals and Maddy Balter added three as Wellesley (13-5) squeezed past

Hingham, 10-9, in nonleague action. . . . Summer Dias and Paige Dobies each had six goals as Newton North (9-8) beat Newton South, 20-12.

Baseball

AJ Ryan crushed a grand slam in the first inning and Xaverian (10-7) qualified for the state tournament with a 12-7 win over Wellesley. . . . Chris Phieffer racked up three hits, two runs and two RBI while Bobby Long fanned six to earn a 5-1 victory for Bridgewater-Raynham (11-6) over Durfee.

Softball

Kathryn Crooke struck out eight strikeouts and also hit a home run to lead Lexington (6-10) past Wakefield, 9-4, in Middlesex League play.

A two-run homer from Meg Hartnett and a solo shot from Callie Wiley proved to be the difference as Andover (5-11) upended Lowell, 5-2, in Merrimack Valley Conference play. Marcello Rossetti, Brian Roach and Matt Feld contributed to this report.