Only 48 seconds into the second half of Friday night’s game with Moses Brown, the Bishop Hendricken lacrosse team held a six-goal lead and was poised to take over second place in Division I.

Nearly 27 minutes later, the Hawks were on the wrong end of a 10-9 overtime loss to the Quakers, as they dropped right back into the middle of the pack.

Hendricken is 4-4 now, in fourth place in the division. Moses Brown improved to 5-3, and is tied for second with Barrington.

“It was a momentum thing,” Hendricken head coach Kevin Murray said. “We got a little flat there for whatever reason, then the tides turn. They’re a good team, they’ve got some good players and they played well.”

The Hawks were playing a little shorthanded, as they were without All-State senior Alex Perreault, who will likely miss the remainder of the season due to a shoulder injury. They were also using senior Chris Cesario in goal, who was making his first career start.

But regardless of the circumstances, everything was going Hendricken’s way early on. Having lost to Moses Brown 11-9 on April 23, the Hawks were clearly fired up and that translated into a big lead.

With Cesario doing his job in net after allowing a goal from James McCahan four minutes into the game, Hendricken soared. Andrew Grady found Kyle Ellis in front of the net, and a long-range shot flew by Moses Brown’s Tyler Wallick to even the score at one goal apiece.

In the second quarter, Conor Garrahy gave the Hawks the lead with a goal in traffic, and 23 seconds later he scored again to make it 3-1.

Three minutes after that, C.J. Marrinan – just back from injury – put a shot on net, and Andrew Fera scooped up the rebound right in front of the crease and put it in.

Over the ensuing four minutes, Garrahy scored twice more and Darius Jagminas added one, putting Hendricken on top 7-1.

“We had some nice momentum,” Murray said. “I think the kids were up for today.”

The Quakers grabbed one goal back when Jack Stallman scored just before the half, but the Hawks still went into the break with a five-goal lead. When Fera scored 48 seconds into the third quarter, the lead was back to six.

And then it all fell apart.

Moses Brown scored the next six goals, with five coming in the third quarter, and the sixth – which tied the score at eight – coming from Stallman two minutes into the fourth.

“They never gave up,” Moses Brown head coach Mike Fraioli said. “They believed in each other, and they believed that they could win.”

In the six-goal run, Stallman scored twice, Robert Penney did as well and William Farnham and Alex Igliozzi scored once each.

During that stretch, the Hawks almost never had possession. The Quakers won four consecutive draws following goals, and more often than not, that translated into more goals.

“Their faceoff guy was good, and he had a little run when he won three or four,” Murray said.

Down, but certainly not out, Hendricken re-grouped and re-took the lead at the 7:06 mark when Jagminas scored in front on an underhand shot off a pass from Fera. That came on the heels of the Hawks hitting the post three times in a single possession.

One minute later, Stallman scored again for the Quakers, knotting the score at six. Neither team would score for the remaining six minutes of regulation.

In overtime, Hendricken won the opening draw and called a timeout to keep possession and draw up a play.

But in a game where everything went wrong after halftime, that plan backfired.

After resuming play, the Hawks lost the ball out of bounds almost immediately. Moses Brown took over possession, and Hendricken would never touch the ball again.

“That was tough, because you hate banging the timeout unless you’re going to get something good,” Murray said. “But we felt that with the guys we had on there it was one of those things where we had to bang it right away.”

The Quakers passed the ball around for a little while, and eventually went to work. With 2:03 to play in the five-minute overtime period, McCahan found Stallman on the left, and his hard, underhand shot skipped past Cesario for the game-winner.

That set off a wild celebration, and left the Hawks wondering how a game that seemed destined for the win column ended up as a brutal loss.

“I don’t know what happened in the third quarter,” Murray said. “We lost momentum, and it’s hard to get it back sometimes.”

Stallman ended the game with five goals, while Garrahy led the Hawks with four.

Hendricken now has two games remaining in the regular season, and could move up as high as second place or as low as fourth. The Hawks were scheduled to be at Barrington on Monday, with the result unavailable at press time. After that, they’ll close out their schedule with a game at winless North Kingstown on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

Moses Brown, meanwhile, still has two tough games in undefeated La Salle and Portsmouth. Barrington does as well, as it takes on the Hawks and La Salle to finish the year.

A lot is still up in the air.

“It’s La Salle and everybody else in the middle of the pack,” Fraioli said.