Despite holding a 13-3 shots advantage, the Hendricken soccer team couldn’t find twine in a 1-0 shutout loss to Portsmouth in the Division I quarterfinals on Monday night.

Although they controlled the flow of the game, the No. 3 Hawks couldn’t defend their home turf against the No. 6 Patriots, as Ricardo Silva’s goal in the 34th minute proved to be the game-winner in a defensive battle.

Hendricken had its chances in both halves, including eight shots-on-goal after the break, but it couldn’t solve the Portsmouth goalkeeper combination of Chris Costa and Will Swart.

“We had some opportunities and it just wasn’t to be tonight,” Hendricken head coach Michael Rooney said. “They had one shot, a couple of mistakes, and they capitalized on it. And when we had our chances, their keeper came up big. I told the kids that the ball movement was good and the shots were good, but sometimes they make great saves. You just have to applaud them and say ‘Hey, great job.’”

It didn’t take long for the Hawks to amass some opportunities in the first half.

In the ninth minute, Chukwudi Onyejose found Chukwuma Onyejose with a through ball, who took a right-footed shot that was handled by Costa.

Senior midfielder Nick Williams had a chance streaking down the left side eight minutes later, but his blast hit the outside of the net.

In the 26th minute, Hendricken had two more quality chances when Ewan Noble drilled a shot-on-net that Costa was able to deflect away from the goal for a corner kick. Off of that corner, Alex Appolonia got his head on a loose ball through traffic, however, that shot ended up in the hands of Costa as well.

But while the Hawks continued to apply pressure in search of getting the first goal, the Patriots weathered the storm, taking a more opportunistic approach.

That paid off in the 34th minute, when a through ball from the midfield sent striker Silva in behind the Hawks’ defense. Silva outran Hendricken’s back line and released a left-footed shot in the box that beat Thomas Faltus low to the far side to give Portsmouth a 1-0 lead going into halftime.

The second half opened up with both teams playing sound and strong defensively.

There weren’t many chances until about midway through the half when Hendricken pushed up in search of scoring the equalizer.

After that, Hendricken got some good looks at the net. Its best chance came in the 60th minute when Noble found space in the middle of the box, ripping a shot that was labeled for the lower left corner, but Swart dove to his right to make the save and preserve his team’s lead.

Chukwuma and Chukwudi Onyejose both had their looks down the stretch, but neither could get a shot past Swart.

Andrew Pimental sent a soft volley on net in the waning minutes off of a long throw in that was gobbled up by Swart too.

“We played very hard and they played very hard,” Rooney said. “It was a tough playoff game that, unfortunately, someone has to come out on the tough end of it.”

A tough loss indeed, particularly for Hendricken’s group of eight seniors, as the Hawks had bigger hopes in mind for the playoffs following a successful, 9-2-3 regular season.

“It was a great season, I’m very proud of how all the players played,” Rooney said. “They gave everything that they can give and we can’t ask any more than that.”

The Patriots moved on to the semifinals after the win, where they were set to take on No. 2 South Kingstown on Wednesday night at Johnston High School. Results from that game were unavailable at press time.

“Only one team can come away happy at the end of this,” Rooney said. “I’ll be thinking about this one for a week and you get the soccer blues. It’s tough.”