Bishop Hendricken won only two games in the first half of the lacrosse season and started the second half with a 15-1 loss to first-place La Salle. For a program that’s had all of two losing seasons in its 14-year history, it was an unusual spot.

But the Hawks are back to their usual tricks.

Since the loss to La Salle, Hendricken hasn’t lost a league game. The Hawks blew past North Kingstown 17-7 in Tuesday’s regular-season finale to finish with four consecutive wins and a 6-4 league record.

“We’re playing better than we were early,” said Hendricken head coach Kevin Murray. “We’ve figured some things out. We’re just playing well.”

Hendricken bounced back from its lopsided loss to La Salle with a 16-4 victory over winless Portsmouth. The surge began in earnest against Moses Brown, the team that eliminated the Hawks in last year’s playoffs and beat them 12-9 early this season. This time, the Hawks out-lasted the Quakers 10-9 in overtime.

“A couple of weeks ago, we started to look a little better in practice and I think the Moses Brown win was big for us,” Murray said. “We were up by three then we went to overtime. I think we showed we weren’t going to lay down.”

Hendricken then topped second-place Barrington, avenging another early-season defeat, before closing things out with a dominant performance against North Kingstown.

The Hawks will be the No. 3 seed for the Division I playoffs and will have a quarterfinal game against Portsmouth, on a date to be determined. The winner would advance to play No. 2 Barrington in the semifinals.

“We’ve tried to get back to some basics, back to the roots of how you should play lacrosse,” Murray said. “We’ve been playing better and some guys have stepped up. We’re getting there. Now it’s playoffs. We’ll see what happens.”

On Tuesday, the Hawks had no trouble hitting the playoffs on a high note. They sprinted to a 5-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game and didn’t let the Skippers get a sustained possession until the 7:20 mark. The lead never dipped below five as the Hawks turned in their best offensive day of the season. Conor Garrahy racked up seven goals and Kyle Ellis scored four.

The Skippers came in with a 2-7 record, but in a previous meeting, Hendricken won by just three goals.

“These guys are aggressive players and they play hard,” Murray said. “We knew we weren’t going to just walk in and have a gimme game. They’re well-coached.”

But the fast start buried the Skippers.

After Senior Night festivities before the game, the Hawks needed just 1:32 to dent the scoreboard. Garrahy ripped a shot from the right wing on a pass from Andrew Fera.

From there, Hendricken’s Mike Sousa controlled three of the next four draws – and the Hawks got the ball back quickly on the only draw they lost – to set up the early burst. Ellis and Andrew Grady scored to make it 3-0 before Garrahy scored twice in a 34-second span to make it 5-0.

“Mike Sousa dominated the ball,” Murray said. “You can see it when you watch the college game. When you win face-offs, you’re going to be in good shape.”

With Sousa in the middle, the Hawks won eight of 11 draws in the first quarter and added four more goals after the quick start. Fera, Ellis, Garrahy and Grady all scored as the Hawks took a 9-2 lead.

Sousa again dominated the draws in the second quarter, winning all six. Not surprisingly, the Hawks tacked on four more goals from Ellis, Fera, Garrahy and Joseph Sousa to go into halftime leading 13-4.

The Hawks led by as many as 12 in the second half thanks to goals by Garrahy and one each by Ellis and Jon Finelli. The Skippers scored the last three goals of the night for the final margin. Reilly Damm led North Kingstown with three goals.

“We’ve got guys stepping up,” Murray said. “Conor can put the ball in the net, but Andrew Fera has been playing well, Andrew Grady, Tyler Williams, Kyle Ellis. We’ve got a lot of guys stepping up. We’ve got a nice balance right now.”

Hendricken’s defense did a solid job limiting a North Kingstown offense that has big potential. Hendricken goalie Sam Milnes wasn’t tested much but was up to the task behind defenders Nick Mariano, James Mueller and Michael Murray.

“I wasn’t happy with our defense early, but we shored it up a little bit,” Kevin Murray said.

The Hawks will now get ready for the postseason, which is set to begin this week. They’d like to keep riding the wave they’re on.

“We’re trying to be in the right position towards the end,” Murray said. “I said to the guys the other day, ‘We should have been winning early.’ We didn’t but we stuck with it. The guys are playing hard.”