Building a 3-0 first quarter lead that turned into a 3-0 halftime advantage, the Dragons survived a third quarter comeback by the Rams and turned it on in the fourth quarter for a 9-3 win.

It took senior John Ricciardi less than a minute to put the Dragons on the scoreboard and a little longer for Bryan Barry to make it 2-0. Will Siefert’s goal at the buzzer ended the first quarter.

It was a somewhat sloppy opening 12 minutes, as both sides turned the ball over repeatedly. Sometimes it was bad passing, while on other occasions the concentration wasn’t there, as Marshfield was intent on inflicting its usual bodily harm.

The second quarter was scoreless, giving the Rams a dose of confidence that they were still in the contest.

Ricky Armstrong got the Dragons on the board less than three minutes after the third-quarter face-off for a 4-0 lead.

Marshfield finally got one through Mickey Zaverucha at the 5:20 mark of the third quarter and dented him one more time four minutes later to cut the deficit to 4-2 with 1:41 left in the quarter.

It was now time for Duxbury to turn on the switch and they wasted little time, as Armstrong scored eight seconds into the fourth quarter to get the offense rolling.

Subsequent goals by Nick Woodgate, Barry, Sam Sweet, and Paul Hellar closed out the scoring at 9-3 to retain possession of the Green Cup.

Two days later Hingham came to town and Hingham coach and Duxbury native John Todd had visions of an upset.

It sure looked promising for the Harbormen when they held Duxbury scoreless through the first nine minutes, only to see Ricciardi and Sweet score in the final three minutes for a 2-0 lead. However, it didn’t end there, as sophomore Seamus Connelly made it 3-0 at the buzzer as he beat goalie Derek McInnis after taking a hit that sent him to the ground.

The second quarter started with Max Randle making it 4-0, as the defenseman took some time off from blanketing Hingham star John Fitzgerald to show off his offensive skills.

The Harbormen finally got on the board 36 seconds later, as Tucker Bradley beat Zaverucha and Jake Quinn did likewise at the 7:27 make to make the game interesting.

The Dragons would extend the lead on a nice solo effort by Chris Williams and made it 6-2 before the half ended, when Armstrong made a strong rush up field before feeding Sweet who beat McInnis with 1:56 left in the half.

Goals by Hellar, Sweet, and Barry made it 9-4 after three periods, giving Duxbury some breathing room.

However, the Harbormen started to creep back slowly, with Chris Benoit getting an unassisted goal at the eight-minute mark and Hingham scoring again on a man-up situation with 6:20 to go in the game to make it 9-6.

A minute later things really got interesting, as Zaverucha made a great save, only to see the rebound bounce across the goal line to put Hingham within two with plenty of time left on the clock.

Ricciardi put an end to any hopes for a Hingham upset when he cut through the crease and deflected a shot that McInnis had lined up, only to watch it change direction at the last second and settle behind the Harbormen’s goaltender for the final score of the game in the 10-7 shootout.

Despite Hingham’s comeback bid, Coach Chris Sweet had good things to say about his team’s effort as the play-offs near.

“Our defense is playing great and our offense is taking good, patient possessions that helps the defence recover,” said Sweet. “If we are turning the ball over quickly on offense that wears down the defense. We’re being very efficient on offense and playing great team defense.”

The Dragons will end their regular season schedule on Thursday night at 7 p.m. when they travel to Tufts University in Medford to take on Bishop Guertin of New Hampshire.