(WILLIAMS GETS A SCOOP: Senior Chris Williams picks up a ground ball in Thursday’s win over Lincoln-Sudbury. Photo by Jim Tarbox)

The Duxbury boys’ lacrosse team still holds the No. 1 ranking in Massachusetts, but it isn’t coming any easier as the season progresses.

After a stunning win over NY powerhouse Jamesville DeWitt of Syracuse during spring break, the Dragons have taken down the best the Bay State has to offer, sandwiched around a 10-5 loss to nationally ranked power and the No. 1 team in NY, Garden City of Long Island. After another Patriot League blowout over Pembroke (17-2) on Tuesday, the Dragons faced No. 11 ranked Lincoln-Sudbury Thursday night under the lights.

The Dragons anticipated the Warriors being one of the tougher Mass teams on their schedule and that thinking proved correct, as the Dragons had to scramble back from potential defeat with a three-goal outburst in the final seven minutes for an exciting 10-9 win over the Warriors.

The game started with Chris Williams rattling a shot off the post in the first minute of play and then things went silent for the next five minutes, as neither team could get on the board. L-S finally broke the ice at the 5:57 mark when junior Dan Delaney cut across in front of Henry Buonagurio and bounced his shot back to the far corner for a 1-0 lead.

Williams had another scoring bid  a minute later, but L-S goalie Dan Shaughnessy made a great save to keep the score from being tied.

Senior Will Siefert would finally get the Duxbury offense rolling, as he came out from behind the net with 2:54 left in the quarter to tie the game at 1-1. His goal was followed by a John Sullivan tally and another goal with seven seconds left  in the period by senior Reilly Naton, who had the Dragons up 3-1 after the first 12 minutes.

The Warriors started the second quarter with a man-up situation and they capitalized immediately, as Delaney beat “Bongo” from 15 yards out to make it 3-2.

The Dragons countered with a Paul Hellar tally with 9:43 left in the half and five minutes later the Warriors kept it close when junior Henry Guild’s score made it a one-goal deficit.

Siefert would score his second of the game to make it 5-3 with 4:05 on the clock, and L-S midfielder Chris Giorgio and Sam Sweet matched goals to give Duxbury a 6-4 lead at halftime.

There was no doubting Lincoln-Sudbury’s ability to stay close. But could they do it for four quarters? Just seven seconds came off the clock after the second-half faceoff to find L-S trailing by one. Nine seconds later Siefert scored his third. It would be Duxbury’s final score of the third quarter, as the Warriors took control and led 8-7 with 12 minutes left in the game.

As time ticked away it began to look bleak for the Dragons, as Guild made it 9-7 with 8:31 to go.

It was now time to pull out all the stops and Duxbury did when senior Seamus Connelly took a nice feed from Siefert and beat Shaughnessy to make it 9-8. One of the prettiest goals of the game came off the stick of Hellar, who faked out a pair of defensemen and confounded Shaughnessy by burying his in-close shot to tie the game at 9-9 with 6:18 showing on the clock.

Duxbury would gain control on the subsequent faceoff and ran down the clock before calling a timeout with 4:16 to go.

When play resumed the Dragons worked the ball into the L-S end and set up a play with Hellar weaving a pass through a crowd in front of Shaughnessy that found Siefert once again for the game-winner with 3:05 left.

Both teams would have possessions in the final three minutes, calling timeouts in hopes of seeing up plays to tie or ice the victory. L-S would get the final possession, and after a rough night in net, Buonagurio would make the save of the night, if not the season, when he turned aside a direct shot with six seconds to go to preserve the win.

After yesterday’s game with Hingham, the Dragons will play Silver Lake on Thursday at 3:45 in Kingston.