Hingham boys make wait worth it, beat Concord-Carlisle in Coaches Cup play
Harbormen move to 4-0
CONCORD >> Hingham opened their latest conquest for a Coaches Cup title in style.
Patrick Browne and Colin Lasch paced things offensively with a pair of goals apiece, while Rocco Egan finished 15-for-15 in the faceoff circle as Hingham advanced to the next stage with a 7-4 victory over Concord-Carlisle.
“I’m just kind of a passfirst player,” Browne said afterwards. “It was nice to get my teammates going early, and then eventually (to score) twice. I think it was just big. We played well as a team, moved the ball. We were flowing. Still have stuff to work on, definitely. But it was a huge win today.”
The bout was originally postponed following poor weather last week, moving the contest to Tuesday morning. As expected, the game proved to be a defensive war in the opening half, with scoring coming in streaks. Hingham (4-0) jumped ahead midway through the first quarter, as Brad Lee and Chase McKenna tallied consecutive goals in a 33-second stretch to put their group in front 2-0 with 5:14 to go in the stanza.
Then, Concord-Carlisle (22) began to chip away, as junior attackman Matthew Carleton sniped the cage off a laser shot with 2:50 remaining in the first quarter.
With 6:25 left in the first half, the Patriots found the equalizer off the stick of senior captain Jed Cain, who buried a shot from long distance to even things at 2-all.
The Harbormen restored their two-goal lead at 4-2 when Colin Lasch and Patrick Browne sniped back-toback goals in a nine-second span. The two schools exchanged goals in the third quarter, with junior Andrew Beanland scoring 55 seconds into the second half. Then, Hingham received a score of its own as Lasch recorded his second goal of the game to make it a 5-3 contest going into the final stanza.
With his team looking to put things away, Browne held possession, and noticed a lane to the net forming. The UMass-Lowell commit charged past his opposing defenseman, then fired a rocket on the run. The ball picked the top corner of the net, and Hingham was in control, up 6-3 with 7:27 left.
Concord-Carlisle got its final goal from senior captain Ryan Fivek midway through the fourth quarter.
Then, Jack Nicholas put the finishing touches on the win for the Harbormen, scoring off a transition feed from Will St. Pierre to make it a 7-4 game with exactly 1:00 left.
Browne added a pair of assists for Hingham, while Lasch had a helper himself.
The victory sets up a second round clash with Wellesley for Hingham, which is on a mission to win its third Coaches Cup title.
“The bottom line is that we had to play for four quarters,” said Hingham coach John Todd. “(Concord-Carlisle) made us make some mistakes for sure. We took advantage of some of the mistakes they made, and we made them earn everything they have. I give credit to our guys, but I give credit to them, holding us down, and forcing us into a crapload of errors. Getting the win is really what it’s all about, and it sets us up to go after a very well-coached Wellesley team. But no matter who we would face in this Cup, any round game, whether you win or lose, is going to be another extremely tough program.”