Hopkinton put everything together on the way to D3 boys lacrosse title

EXETER - The road to a championship is different every year and for every program, but none of them looked anything like this one for the Hopkinton High School boys lacrosse team.

Before the season even started, coach Deacon Blue wasn't quite sure who was going to be his starting varsity goaltender.

A freshman ended up taking the spot on junior varsity, but when the Hawks opened practices in the spring, they turned to someone who had experience as a keeper, just not in lacrosse.

Junior Colby Boissy, who was a goalie for the Hopkinton boys soccer team and played baseball before this spring, decided to give lacrosse a try.

"He’s an incredible athlete," Blue said of Boissy. "We came into the season with no goalie and I was like what are we going to do. A freshman stepped up as our JV and then Colby came in from baseball. He’s a soccer goalie and he’s an incredibly athletic dude. He has a sixth sense for where the ball is going to be. Not your text-book, perfect technique goalie, but he’s got the quick hands and hand-eye coordination."

Boissy got plenty of help from the defense that was returning around him, as senior Steven Reddy, junior Cam Bassett and junior Avery Condon all received all-state recognition after this season. But then, so did Boissy.

"He’s an amazing goalie, an amazing athlete and I can’t say enough good things about him," Reddy said. "It’s crazy that it’s his first year. I think it helped having a veteran defense to protect him. He came a long way throughout the season, and some of those saves, he would not have made (earlier). He was the best I’ve ever seen (him) right now and he’s only going to get better."

So the Hawks had the goalie situation figured out, but more than halfway through the season, they were just 6-5 and had struggled to score consistently against other top teams in Division III. That included two losses to Bow in which Hopkinton scored a combined six goals.

"We had a really sloppy offense, we were throwing the ball away all the time," Blue said. "We bounced back and kind of changed our offense, and the guys really took to it. A lot of quick passing and selflessness, really looking for the assist rather than the goal. It really worked for this crew."

That selflessness showed in Hopkinton's 7-4 win over Campbell in the D3 final, as the Hawks got goals from six players. With the game tied 4-4 late in the fourth quarter, three players had a goal in crunch time for Hopkinton, helping it to its fourth title since 2017.

"Our team feeds on momentum," Reddy said. "The second there’s a goal, the second the boys are happy, it just starts something every time. The goals keep on coming. I think people started to think this is the championship and we’re going to win."

But as important as the goals were, it was the defense that delivered the win for Hopkinton.

Campbell went into the championship averaging 9.8 goals per game, but two of the Cougars lowest offensive outputs of the season came against the Hawks. Campbell won in the regular-season meeting 4-2.

"Cam, Steven and Avery are arguably some of the best defenders in our division," Blue said. "We knew they had a potent offense, so we had to lock them up. (Campbell's Andrew) Willnus is a threat always but we put Reddy on him. From what we had seen before, they like to draw and dump, so we were looking out for that kind of stuff. We had our heads on a swivel looking for that."

For all the success the Hawks have had on the field over the last six seasons, Reddy knows it's been about more than just what the players are capable of doing when they put on a Hopkinton jersey.

"I think we have the best pair of coaches in the league and that’s a huge part of it," the senior said. "I also think our youth programs are amazing. I started in third grade, and from the get-go, I had really good coaches. I played with the same group of guys and we all got better together. I think that really helps us form a really good team."