DARTMOUTH — Hingham from the outset Saturday strongly committed to trying to stop Dartmouth star senior striker Landon Raposa.
Despite additional attention on Raposa, it wasn’t enough to keep down the eighth-seeded Indians.
Raposa unlocked Dartmouth’s offense with a game-altering goal late in the first half and the Indians put home two goals over the final 40 minutes to notch a 3-2 victory against the No. 9 Harbormen at Dartmouth Memorial Field and advance to the Division 2 state boys soccer quarterfinals.
“Their main mission was to take (Raposa) out of the game and make the other guys beat them,” Dartmouth head coach Josh Silva said. “He did a great job of still putting pressure on them, not getting discouraged. And because of him, it opened things up for us, and thankfully, the guys were able to cash in.”
Hingham (14-4-3), which struck first in the 32nd minute when Spencer Coppola headed in a corner, made things challenging on Dartmouth’s offense by man-marking Raposa and having a four-player back line.
Raposa finally got free of Hingham defenders in the final minute of the first half when he caused a turnover before evading charging Hingham goalie James Watters and putting his shot into the vacated net to level the score.
“They were man-marking me, so I had to work double the speed, double everything, had to put double effort in,” said Raposa of his 20th goal of the season. “They made a mistake. … I read it, picked it off, led them into that pass. We scored, and momentum definitely helped us.”
Raposa’s tally ignited Dartmouth (11-5-2) as the Indians went ahead just 3:17 into the second half when Andrew Catulo’s long, over-the-top cross found Luke Fern deep inside the box for a 2-1 lead.
Dartmouth added to its advantage in the 59th minute when Lucas Macedo’s initial close-range shot following a throw-in was stopped by Watters, only for the ball to deflect off Macedo’s face and into the back of the net.
“We know every single defense is going to be on Landon and it’s just going to help us more with more space,” Macedo said. “I think that played a big factor today.”
Hingham gave itself a chance with a goal from Colman Donohue in the 70th minute, but Dartmouth had enough to hold on as the Indians haven’t made it this far in the state tournament since 2017.
“There are certain years when you know teams are special and these guys, they just embrace it,” Silva said.
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