They may not be the No. 1 seed in this year’s tournament, but the No. 3-seeded Dragons played like they won’t be stopped any time soon in a 16-0 rout of No. 19-seed Natick High School on Friday afternoon in Duxbury.

The early tournament games seem like men against boys until the final eight teams make the quarterfinals.  Acton-Boxboro, Needham, St. John’s Prep, Lincoln-Sudbury and Billerica are just some of the familiar names in the final eight along with the Dragons, while No. 1-seeded Marshfield made an early exit when they couldn’t compete skill-wise with L-S in its 14-12 loss to the No. 17-seeded Warriors.

The writing was on the wall for the Red and Blue of Natick, as the Dragons were scoring at a goal-a-minute pace in the opening 12 minutes.

It took Paul Hellar just 20 seconds to give the hosts a 1-0 lead, and Andrew Buron followed 1:20 later with a shot to the top left corner that beat goalkeeper Doug Dube for a two-goal advantage.

The ball never made it out of the Natick end in the opening minutes, as junior Will Siefert tacked on two more goals in a 45-second span to make it 4-0 with 8:56 left in the first quarter.

The ease with which the Dragons controlled play was a testament to Duxbury’s ability, as Kane Haffey, Bryan Barry, and Hellar would beat Dube over a four-minute span for a 7-0 lead.

By the time the first quarter ended the Dragons were in possession of a 10-0 lead with Seamus Connolly getting on the scoring sheet and Haffey adding two more to his total.

Despite the insurmountable lead, everyone tried getting into the scoring act and junior midfielder James Burke wasted little time, putting one past Dube just nine seconds after the second-quarter face-off.

Connolly and Hellar added two more goals in a two-minute span to make it 13-0, while Barry put some mustard on his shot at the 7:04 mark, whipping a shot around his neck to make it 14-0 at the half.

Coach Chris Sweet held back his troops in the third quarter, as Barry and Haffey made it 16-0, with the bench coming on in the final 12 minutes to give the regulars a break.

The Dragons now get ready for their second game of the tournament when they take on Lexington at 5 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon in Duxbury. The No. 6-seeded Minutemen (14-5) knocked off No. 11-seeded Brookline, 17-10, in first round action. The winner will take on the winner of the battle between No. 2-seeded Billerica and No. 10-seeded Acton-Boxboro. A Billerica win will have the Dragons traveling to Billerica with a win over Lexington at a  time to be announced.