DANVERS – In the last game of the regular season, the St. John’s Prep Eagles dominated the Hingham Harbormen, 16-4, Friday night at a rainy Glatz Field.
“Hingham is one of the best teams in the state so we had to show up today and we showed up today. That’s what we need to be doing at this time of year, ” Prep coach John Pynchon said.
Both teams came into this matchup as the fourth-ranked team in their respective division; SJP (17-3) in Division 1 and Hingham (17-3) in Division 2 and both used the game as a tuneup before the state tournament.
The Eagles scored five goals in the first seven minutes into the first quarter and this is all they would need for their commanding performance. The Eagles went on to lead 8-1 after the opening quarter. Pynchon called this his team’s best opening quarter of the season.
The rest of the game saw St. John’s Prep play ball control. The hosts ended the first half up 10-3 as they slowed down the pace and looked to work possessions. Hingham showed some life to end the second quarter to make it look close.
The Prep scored again in under two minutes to start the third. They added another three goals for insurance as they entered the final frame up 14-4. Both teams emptied their benches in the final quarter to allow other players to make an appearance. St. John’s added two more to account for the final.
“In addition to the scoring obviously, I’m very proud of our faceoffs, our defense, ball movement, just an all-around effort.” Pynchon said.
Senior captain midfielder Luke Kelly had four goals for the victors as the leading scorer of the game and fellow senior captain attackman Cam McCarthy also had a hat trick. The Eagles had eight different goal scorers. Although St. John’s only loss was to the defending Connecticut state champion, it will most likely not be the number one seed, despite the dominant season. This should give them a chip on their collective shoulder going into the playoffs and will be one of the fiercest teams to playoff in contention for a state title.
