Although the final score was, in fact, quite indicative of the the Hawks' dominance against North Kingstown this past Tuesday night, it actually could have been much, much worse. The seventeen goals that our guys netted in their 17-7 win over the Skippers probably could have easily been twenty-five, should they have decided to really press the issue.
The Hawks' resurgence since their 2-4 early-season start culminated with their regular season-ending win on Senior Night at Dennis Hayden Stadium. The win was important on several counts: first, the seniors obviously wanted to go out strong in their final chance to play on the Hayden turf; second, Coach Murray certainly wanted the development of and momentum for his team to continue with the state playoffs now upon us; and, third and most importantly, a fourth consecutive win would allow the Hawks to secure the #3 seed for the states and the opportunity to play the #6 seed, Portsmouth, in the first round rather than a higher-seeded opponent.
Check, check, and check.
The game was broadcast live, right here on The Network, with Cam Brennan and Max Zweiner doing a stellar job of play-by-play and analysis. We did, however, interrupt part of the broadcast to go check in on the volleyball team, which was taking on Cranston East in their Senior Night game as well. The latter part of the lacrosse broadcast can be seen in the first Ustream viewer at the top of the site, and the entire first half can be seen here:
Broadcast live streaming video on UstreamA glimpse of the Senior Night ceremonies can also be seen here:
As a result of the important win, the lacrosse team now advances the first round of the state playoffs tonight against Portsmouth - which, as noted above, is the somewhat more favorable matchup - at Hayden Stadium at 6pm. The tentative plan is for The Network to have the game live, but we haven't been able to carve anything in stone just yet. There also is some question about weather conditions for this evening, so stay tuned.
On the volleyball front, it's been a season largely of growing pains for Coach Harrington's bunch, but there's no doubt that with a host of returning talented juniors, better days are clearly ahead. Going into Tuesday night's game, there was still an outside chance at a playoff berth, but with the 3 sets-to-2 loss, the Hawks have been officially been eliminated from the hunt.
Some highlights from the Senior Night contest can be seen here:
The baseball team also finished its season on a strong note with an 11-2 thrashing of Woonsocket at Pepin Field. The Hawks finish the regular slate at 17-1 and move into the state tournament as the #1 seed in their region.
