Bishop Hendricken had won four games in a row heading into Thursday’s lacrosse quarterfinal against Portsmouth.

The Hawks weren’t about to stop there.

Shaking off a bit of a slow start, third-seeded Hendricken cruised past the Patriots 20-2 for a spot in the Division I semifinals opposite No. 2 Barrington. The Hawks and Eagles will square off Thursday at 5 p.m. at Brown University’s Stevenson Field.

“We started off a little slow, but we got it going,” said Hendricken head coach Kevin Murray. “The kids played hard today. Now we’ve just got to be ready for Thursday.”

Hendricken’s four-game winning had streak started with a 16-4 victory over Portsmouth, who finished the regular season without a league victory. The Hawks didn’t want to take anything for granted, though, as they got set for the rematch.

Scoring just one goal in the first nine minutes of the game wasn’t what Murray had in mind.

“The focus is you’ve got to play smart,” he said. “We’ve built some momentum so you don’t want to lose it and start playing sloppy. I think in the beginning, we did get sloppy. We had to bang a timeout and get re-focused. I think when we play smart and play hard, we play well.”

And eventually, they did. Andrew Grady broke a 1-1 tie with a goal at 6:25 of the first quarter. Just over a minute later, Conor Garrahy scored.

Then in the final two minutes of the quarter, the Hawks really hit their stride. Garrahy scored with 1:25 left, touching off a burst of three goals in a little over a minute. The Hawks took a 6-1 lead into the second quarter.

From there, they cruised, taking a 10-2 lead into the break and scoring 10 more goals without letting a single one in during the second half.

Andrew Fera led the Hawks with three goals and two assists. Garrahy and Tyler Williams each had two goals and an assist, while Grady had a goal and two assists. Tucker Alberigo, Reilly Miller and Nate Reilly each had one goal and one assist. Jon Finelli, Kyle Ellis and Jose Sousa scored two goals each.

Hendricken also got a goal apiece from Wyatt Alberigo, John Hindinger and Brandon Couture, plus an assist from Ryan King and Kiel Fuller.

At the other end, starting goalie Sam Milnes made four saves while Ryan Williams made one after coming on in the fourth quarter.

“We’ve got some transition things we’ve got to clean up, but the guys played well tonight,” Murray said. “We just have to minimize mistakes. If we do that, we’re good. If we don’t, we can give up goals.”

The Hawks are hoping they find the right formula against Barrington. The Eagles finished a game ahead of Hendricken at 7-3 and won the first meeting of the season. But in the most recent meeting, on May 18, Hendricken won 11-9.

“I think the biggest key against Barrington is you’ve got to dominate the ball,” Murray said. “They’ve got good offensive players and if you get down on them, it’s going to be a long night. You’ve got to get up on them, you’ve got to keep pressure on their midis and you’ve got to get to their goalie early.”

Hendricken has been doing all of those things in its win streak, which salvaged a 1-3 start to the season. The Hawks have now made at least the semifinals in every year of the program’s history.

And they don’t want to stop there either.

“At the beginning of the year we were sloppy,” Murray said. “We weren’t playing well and now we are. Hopefully, we’re playing well next week. That’s all that matters.”