They could see it coming midway through the season when a 7-3 loss to North Quincy at them at 5-5-1. Ten games remained on the schedule with some of the toughest games yet to come and the Dragons needed to finish 5-5 to make the play-offs. Scoring had certainly become a problem, and it has remained that way ever since.

With Friday afternoon’s 3-0 loss to Xaverian, the Dragons were one loss away from watching from the sidelines when tournament play begins next week.

Duxbury’s participation in the Cape Cod Classic may well have ended their chances, but it seemed to be a foregone conclusion that the team would come up short based on their prior two weeks of action.

The Dragons certainly looked like they had cashed it in in the first two minutes of action against the Hawks, as they trailed 2-0 with little regard for defense.

Xaverian was relentless after the opening face-off and stormed the Duxbury end, firing away at Duxbury netminder Wes Barrington and finally poking one through his legs and into the far corner for a 1-0 lead with 13:27 to go.

It seemed like the Hawks never left that end of the ice, as they put one past Barrington again just 29 seconds later, thanks to a shot from the point and unguarded rebound that was left for Cam Miller to put past the shell-shocked netminder.

What looked like a run-away suddenly calmed down, as both teams had power-play opportunities but couldn’t capitalize.

With 4:19 to go Xaverian had another man up, but too much passing and not enough shooting couldn’t take advantage.

Trailing 2-0 to start the second period, the Dragons had a golden opportunity when they went on the power-play with 12:07 on the clock. But it was the Hawks who looked to be the man up, as forward Kevin Aufiero ragged the puck around the ice to kill time and Matt Hennessey almost blew one past Barrington before time expired.

Duxbury just couldn’t seem to get any sort of offensive flow, while Xaverian was relentless in its assault on Barrington, who stuffed a pair of break-aways late in the second period that kept the Dragons in the game.

Barrington came under attack to start the third period, making a trio of saves in the first 60 seconds that brought some hope that Duxbury was still in the game.

Midway through the period, Duxbury picked up its attack, as sophomore forward Bryan Barry almost put one past Brian O’Loughlin that triggered a renewed sense of urgency for the Dragons.

A blast from the point by Colin Woods barely missed the right side of the net, just adding to the Dragons’ frustration.

A failed power-play with 4:06 to go pretty much sealed the Dragons’ fate, after which the Hawks scored on an open net with 1:39 remaining to seal the win.

“Everything was pretty positive tonight,” said Coach John Blake. “I was happy with the way they worked and the way they skated. Obviously Wes came up with some big saves, but we played pretty even with them after those first three minutes. We were a little bit in awe of them early on because they are one of the best teams in the state, but after that it was pretty even the rest of the way. If we play like that down on the Cape we’ll be OK.”

On Wednesday night the Dragons will play their third game of the Cape Cod Classic in Falmouth before returning home for a game with Needham on Friday at 3:10 p.m.