PROVIDENCE — The Mt. Hope High School boys' lacrosse team's unbeaten run to a potential Division III title, literally and figuratively, got jolted in recent days as the top-seeded Huskies were upset by third-seeded Narragansett, 9-8, in the league championship contest Monday night, June 9, at Brown University's Stevenson-Pincince Field.

Lighting associated with the severe weather that hit the area mid-afternoon Saturday, June 7, forced the postponement of game from its original spot on the calendar.

And when the sides regathered at the beginning of the new week, it was the Mariners, whom Mt. Hope swept in two meetings during the regular season, that had most of the electricity.

Specifically in the third quarter, when Narragansett used a five-goal onslaught en route to handing the Huskies their only loss of the 2025 season against a D-III opponent. The Mariners went from trailing 4-3 at intermission to leading by a reasonably comfortable score of 8-5 at the end of 36 minutes.

In the fourth, Narragansett added another tally to up its edge in the early stages of the final frame before holding off a late Mt. Hope rally for the one-goal win.

The championship was the first for the Mariners in school history. Narragansett has been playing the sport since 2003, the third season of Rhode Island Interscholastic League sanctioning. The Mariners also upset second-seeded Lincoln, 8-7, on the road late last week in the semifinals. Narragansett finished with a 12-6 overall record, 10-4 in D-III games.

For Mt. Hope, which won the last of its three titles all at the D-II level in 2010, the 2025 season came to an agonizing close with a 15-5 overall record and 14-1 in the league.

"It was a great year, but, yeah, this is a disappointment," said Mt. Hope head coach Jay Spina. "I don't think any of us thought that we wouldn't win. In the beginning of the year our goal was to win it, and we didn't."

In fairness, both teams seemed a bit shaky at the start of what was a cool, misty Monday night on the East Side of Providence.

The Huskies had the ball for the better part of the first two minutes of the game, but weren't able to put any shots on net. The Mariners, then, had possession for the next 90 or seconds. They were able to put a shot on, but Mt. Hope keeper Ethan Labollita made the first of his over a dozen stops.

The junior netminder later fended off a Narragansett break-away attempt midway through the period just prior to the Huskies in response breaking the ice on Aedan Nelson's goal off a Charlie Knapman feed with 4:11 remaining.

But a bit of sloppiness that plagued the locals all night showed its initial signs less than two minutes later. The Mariners tied it after a Mt. Hope turnover with 2:38 to go.

The uncharacteristic untidiness for the Huskies continued at the start of the second quarter, when 2:14 in Narragansett took advantage of another Mt. Hope miscue to take a 2-1 edge.

The locals initially failed to be physical enough on the zone entry then stood around with a loose ball in front of net, allowing a Mariner to sweep a shot by Labollita.

A few minutes later, Nelson was the recipient of a throttling body check, which sent him to the sidelines for the better part of the next two periods and the Mariner who laid the illegal shot to the penalty area. A man-up, the Huskies were able to take advantage with a Nathan Carpenter goal to square the score at two.

"He was hurt. He got winded. He couldn't quite get right. It was a big effect. He's our inside guy. He's our guy that, you know, our dodger. He's the team dodger. So you take him out of the equation and, you know, it hurt us," Spina said of the loss of Nelson until the fourth quarter.

(On an aside, a "dodger" in lacrosse is an offensive player whose primary role is to transition possession from the midfield into the offensive zone.)

The situation appeared to spur Mt. Hope for a while. The locals soon regained the lead on a nice pass-shot combination between Ben Browne and Knapman, the latter ripping a one-timer by 'Gansett keeper Trevor Bonner (15 saves) to make it 3-2 Huskies.

The lead stretched to 4-2 some 80 seconds after off a pretty transition play that began with a Labollita save, a pass up to Maddox Canario, who then fed Will Stimson for a shot and tally with 4:36 remaining before the break.

The Mt. Hope keeper next made a couple more saves, but in the waning moments of the half the Mariners again took advantage of a Huskies' misstep by scoring with just nine seconds left.

"It was a little sloppy. I think when the ball got on the ground we didn't challenge enough. And they were running. They ran on us a lot. I don't know if we didn't challenge enough on their initial runs. I'm not really sure exactly what happened there. I'm gonna have to wait and take a look at the tape and see," said Spina.

Out of intermission, it took only 2:34 for 'Gansett to tie the game with the locals once more seeming slightly out of sorts.

That sense, was short-lived, as Mt. Hope went back out in front for what proved the final time of the night on another Knapman tally 34 seconds later.

From there, though, the Mariners took control. Narragansett scored the next four goals from the 7:47 mark to 1:26 to go in the third quarter. And it could have been worse if not for an additional two Labollita stops.

The Mariners scored what proved their last goal 81 seconds into the fourth on a counterattack following Mt. Hope's win of the opening face-off.

To their credit, the Huskies stayed in pursuit. They made it 9-6 on a goal that mirrored the earlier sequence of a save, a Canario carry and pass to Knapman, who gave it to Browne for the eventually tally.

Nelson next returned to the action in a significant way, scooping up a rebound of a Carpenter shot to make it 9-7 with just over eight minutes to go. And the same pair — a Carpenter assist and a Browne goal — later combined to make 9-8 with a little more than four left.

But that would be it for the scoring. Mt. Hope had a couple of shot attempts late that either went wide or high and one that actually hit the post. But that bit of bad luck was offset by the Mariners doing the same at the other end with a shot that clearly beat Labollita caroming off the post and crossbar out of bounds.

"I think that in the beginning of the game we were a little too charged up about being here, and then, we came out of halftime, a little flat," Spina said of the night as a whole. "We came out sloppy in the third quarter, and then it was like a foot race. The ball was on the ground a lot. They were dropping it. We were dropping it, and it was just one of those things, you know, who comes up with a ball in those kind of situations is where it plays out."

As Spina noted, the end of the 2025 season did not "play out" how he or his Huskies thought or expected it would. Still, with basically all of his contributors returning the fold and a quality group of youngsters joining the program from the Kickemuit Middle School team, the coach and his players believe they'll be back in the mix next spring.

"The good thing is, outside of three of them (seniors Stimson, Canario and long stick Rocco Palazio), they're all back next year. Plus, I have a load coming from the middle school, so we'll be right back in it again next year," said Spina. "I know a lot of these kids will be, you know, they're playing summer and fall ball this year, so. And I've got a group of kids that are playing box (indoor), too, so that'll help us on that inside game."