They have been the two dominant powers in Massachusetts’s high school lacrosse: Duxbury in Division I and Medfield in Division II.

On Friday night on a cold and damp evening at Chandler Field in Duxbury, both squads were determined to prove who was king of the Commonwealth.

As has been the case for almost a decade, Duxbury proved they are still the team to beat when they earned a hard-fought 12-8 win over the Warriors with an explosive third period onslaught.

It’s debatable if Medfield is Duxbury’s toughest in-state opponent on the schedule, but they sure made their claim to be in the first period. When the first 12 minutes was over with the game tied at 3-3.

It took Duxbury just 1:20 to grab an early 1-0 lead when senior midfielder Nick Woodgate came flying down the right wing and buried his shot into the far corner past Medfield goaltender Sam Aronson.

Outscoring the Dragons will be tough for any team, so the Warriors were deliberate on their first possession, working the perimeter for close to three minutes before attacking Duxbury netminder Mickey Zaverucha. The senior captain made the initial save, but senior midfielder Kyle Foster was on the spot to grab the rebound and put it in to tie the game at 1-1.

The action began to open up a bit in the final five minutes of the opening quarter, as sophomore Will Siefert took a feed from classmate Paul Hellar and faked Aronson to the ground before sliding it behind him for a 2-1 lead with 4:11 on the clock.

It looked like the Dragons were making a statement early when junior Kane Haffey dodged his way in close and beat Aronson at the post for a 3-1 lead, but the Warriors came back 11 seconds later when Foster took the faceoff and raced straight down the field to beat Zaverucha and cut the lead to 3-2.

Less than a minute later Medfield tied the score at 3-3 on a Matt Bletzer goal, and Duxbury knew they were in for a battle.

The start of the second quarter saw Hellar put some beautiful moves on the Warrior defense, cutting in from the right and beating Aronson for a 4-3 lead.

Just 29 seconds later  Haffey drove Medfield defender Garrett Read crazy, dodging back and forth as he moved closer to the goal before finally beating Aronson for a 5-3 lead with 8:42 left in the half.

It appeared the Dragons were on their way when they had possession and called a timeout with 6:19 to go, only to see Medfield regain possession and pepper Zaverucha to no avail. Unfortunately, the senior netminder’s clearing pass up field went awry, allowing Peter Gill’s unassisted goal to cut the deficit to 5-4 at halftime.

“Our defense did a great job,” said Coach Chris Sweet. “We came in at halftime and made some adjustments. Our message at halftime was if you are going to win a game like this you need to win the groundballs, and we came out in the second half and did that.”

With nervous Duxbury fans holding their breaths, the Warriors started the second half with a man-up situation and tied the game at 5-5 when Gill scored his second of the night, coming out of the corner and beating Zaverucha high.

There was little doubt the wake-up call had been made, and it was now time for the Dragons to take control and put some distance between the two teams.

A Siefert feed to Haffey in the slot led to the go-ahead goal at the 6:50 mark when his shot rattled off the post. The play seemed to fire up the home team, as they scored five more goals in a five-minute span with Siefert, Haffey, junior Bryan Barry, sophomore Chris Williams, and Hellar beating Aronson for a comfortable 11-5 lead after three periods.

The lead grew to 12-5 1:36 into the final quarter, as Siefert took a pass from sophomore Sam Sweet, who had beaten an aggressive double-team, and scored his third goal of the game.

With the game in hand, Duxbury relaxed and watched as the Warriors tacked on three more goals in the final five minutes to make the score respectable.

“It feels great because we want to beat everyone and we are happy to come away with a win over the best program in Division II,” said a happy Sweet.

After traveling to BC High on Monday, the Dragons now set their sights on hosting a trio of out-of-state opponents this week that include Simsbury, Conn. on Wednesday afternoon, Niskayuna, NY on Saturday, and Christian Brothers Academy on Sunday.