Duxbury’s 14-game unbeaten streak came to an unfortunate end on Thursday afternoon in Hingham, as it lost its first soccer game of the season to the Harbormen, 1-0, and in the process lost its bid for the Patriot League title. While Duxbury finished with a 10-1-4 record in league play (24 pts.), Hingham ended up at 12-2-1 (25 pts.), earning two points for a win and one point for a tie. To make matters worse, the Harbormen scored by accident when Brian Blanchard’s shot in the 25th minute of action deflected off a Dragon defender for the only score of the game.

Duxbury’s forte has been defense for most of the season, while the offense has scored just one goal in each of six games and two goals in each of four games. While Coach John Tocci maintains that his team has gotten its chances, it becomes more critical from now on that the Dragons start to bury those chances as post season play begins.

The Harbormen were well aware that the key to stopping the Duxbury offense was to keep senior Dan Sangster in check and they did just that, limiting his chances, as well as those of the rest of the Dragons.

Hingham netminder Andrew Blomberg didn’t make many saves, but when he did they were timely, as he knocked away a David Hemingway cross and minutes later saved a deflected shot by Sangster in the first half.

While the Duxbury offense may have been sluggish, the defense turned in its usual stingy performance, as Steve Blout and goaltender Max Cote did an excellent job keeping Hingham’s team scoring leader Brett Canepa off the scoreboard.

Earlier in the week, the Dragons got a scare from North Quincy, but managed to pull it out with a 3-2 win.

Playing on a muddy and slippery natural grass field, Duxbury was far more cautious than they had been in their early-season 4-0 win over the Red Raiders.

Duxbury opened the scoring in the 12th minute of play when Zach Gino took a diagonal pass on the ground from Sangster and dribbled in closer and around the NQ keeper for a 1-0 lead.

The Red Raiders would respond 10 minutes later when they scored on a direct kick that eluded Cote and snuck under him to tie the game at 1-1

Gino was involved once again, as he sent a ball up the middle to Jimmy Landry, who cut behind his defender and dribbled into box for a right-footed finish that gave the visitors a 2-1 halftime lead.

The action went back and forth in the second half with Duxbury holding onto its slim one-goal margin. With the clock winding down, NQ’s Ian Martins tied the game in the 36th minute when he buried the rebound of a Cote save.

The pressure continued on Cote, but this time it turned positive, as he cleared the ball to midfield where Sangster pounced on it. The senior captain proceeded to dribble past one defender before firing a shot under the NQ goalie for the game-winner.

The team will end its regular-season schedule on Wednesday afternoon in Duxbury at 4 p.m. when it entertains Marshfield.

On Thursday the MIAA will announce its pairings for the South Sectionals with the Dragons expected to open with a home playoff game. Consult the DHS sports Web site for playoff schedules.