Here is a piece of advice for AD Thom Holdgate. Never schedule athletic events on the first two schools days after the prom. It gives coaches an easy out when things aren’t going well.

With a wry smile on his face, DHS lacrosse Coach Chris Sweet echoed that reason for his team’s lackluster first period performance last Tuesday afternoon in Duxbury, where the Dragons battled back from a 4-2 deficit to run away with an 18-10 win over Needham.

Coming into the game as the #13 ranked team in MA, Needham was expected to give the Dragons a run for their money. With plenty of size up front, the Rockets grabbed the lead at the 3:39 mark when Will Stenberg followed a Cam Bumpus goal to give the visitors a 2-1 lead.

Quinn Cully would score his second of the quarter less than a minute later to tie the game at 2-2, but Needham responded with two goals in the final minute to end the quarter ahead.

The Dragons recognized that their lackluster play had them in jeopardy, so they turned it around in the second quarter with Cully registering three more scores, Hakeem Lecky scoring two, and Kane Haffey getting a single tally for an 8-5 halftime lead.

With momentum clearly on their side in the third quarter, the Dragons continued to attack the Needham net, scoring the first four goals of the quarter before Needham broke their string and made it 12-6 at the end of three.

The fourth quarter saw action on both ends that produced a goal a minute, with the Dragons winning the battle once again (6-4) thanks to a hat-trick from senior Andy Puopolo (4), and single scores from senior captain Jake Harvey, Haffey, and freshman Sam Sweet.

Duxbury ended its regular season schedule on Thursday night when it traveled to Harvard Stadium to take on Bishop Guertin of Nashua, NH, winning 7-4.

The Dragons jumped out to a 4-0 lead and apparently lost interest, as BG battled back to make it a game at halftime trailing 4-2.

Duxbury unloaded 34 shots on net with many of them hitting the posts.

“We had plenty of chances,” said Sweet. “It just became kind of a sloppy game in the second half.”

Cully led the Dragons with three goals in the win.

“We’re still tweaking things,” said Coach Chris Sweet. “But at times in that Needham game we did show signs of where we want to be. Once the tournament starts the bench gets shorter, but we’ll have time to make some of those adjustments.”

The Dragons will be going for their sixth straight Division I state title and their eighth in the past nine seasons with St. John’s Prep, Billerica, BC High and Lincoln-Sudbury providing the biggest competition.

The seedings for the MIAA Division I boys’ lacrosse tournament were announced on Friday morning, and the Dragons were awarded the #2 seed. They will play the winner of Haverhill/Acton-Boxboro on Saturday in Duxbury with the game starting at 1 p.m.