No. 14 Mansfield boys’ lacrosse stakes its flag with Chowda Cup championship over No. 12 Marshfield - The Boston Globe (2025)

“It’s a program-defining win,” said Mansfield’s 18-year coach Tim Frias. “The boys work hard all year long and for it to culminate with this, one of the many steps we want to take this season, is a real good feeling.”

With Sam O’Brien winning the majority of first-half faceoffs, leading to goals from Charlie Carroll (3 goals) and Jon Sullivan (3 goals, 1 assist), the No. 12 Rams (6-3) took an early lead. But Mansfield used an aggressive ride and opportunistic offense to string together a 5-0 run in the second quarter, taking a 9-8 advantage into halftime.

In the second half, sophomore Cole Hogencamp took over, with five of his game-high eight goals coming after the break. Junior Andrew DeGirolamo (2 goals, 5 assists) found his teammate in position for multiple goals and the Hornets held Marshfield’s star duo off the board while allowing just one goal over the final 22 minutes.

“We wanted to really limit [O’Brien’s] fastbreaks off the faceoff X and Nico [Smith] did a great job battling,” said Frias. “[Carroll and Sullivan] are great players. We just wanted to find ways to keep them contained and keep them from going on runs.”

Mansfield lost, 18-8, to Marshfield in the quarterfinals of last year’s Chowda Cup. While the Hornets got off to an undefeated start this season, their schedule did not ramp up until they entered this annual vacation-week tournament, which they had not won since joining the field in 2012.

“Everyone says that our schedule’s been a cupcake,” said DeGirolamo, “And we just showed that we can play with anyone in the state. We’re firing on all cylinders.”

Hingham 13, Winchester 9 — The No. 8 Red & Black (7-3) won the first three faceoffs and took an early 4-1 lead before the No. 9 Harbormen (9-1) settled into the rain-soaked Coaches Cup clash, trimming the deficit to 7-6 by halftime when Patty Browne (2 goals, 3 assists) set up fantastic finishes from Cam McKenna (2 goals, 2 assists) and Colin Lasch (2 goals, 2 assists) in the final 30 seconds of the second quarter.

Ryan Martin led Winchester with six goals, including a tally early in the third quarter, but the Harbormen held their opponents scoreless over the next 20 minutes during a steady 6-0 run. Chase Beighley contributed a goal and an assist and Owen Packard finished with a hat trick for Hingham.

“We let in some soft goals early, but we didn’t cave,” said Hingham coach John Todd. ”Our defense played great and then our offense settled down.”

Nate Weitzer can be reached at nweitzer7@gmail.com. Follow him on X @nweitzer7.