A late slide by XAVERIAN that saw them go 1-1-3 to close out the season saw the Hawks slip to No. 15 and host a preliminary round game today against No. 18 Durfee (7-5-6) with the winner getting No. 2 New Bedford on Sunday.

While the Hawks staggered down the stretch, they closed with a convincing win over Franklin, with Robby Stack scoring both goals shortly after returning from injury, and they have had a strong week of practice according to coach Gary Bowers.

Stack led the Hawks offensively with 10 goals while offensive-minded stopper Paul Dupre added six goals and four assists and Greg Stokinger, who like Stack has missed some time to injury, added four goals and three assists. The Hawks will be without James Vickery to a groin injury.

A combination of the injuries and having been assured of qualifying for quite some time did let the Hawks experiment with different bodies in different places. One of the pleasant finds has been the play of Ian Logie.

The strength of the Hawks has been their defense and Evan Polanik in goal, who conceded 20 goals in 17 games with four shutouts. The Hawks defensive unit of Norwood’s Ben Weidenaar, Ben Langhauser, Dedham’s Conor Fitzgerald and Dupre have allowed more than two goals in just one game this season, a 3-2 loss at St. John’s of Shrewsbury. Outside of Dupre because of his ability on set pieces, they largely toil in anonymity because of their consistency.

The Hilltoppers finished last in the Big 3, going 0-3-1 and were outscored by No. 2 New Bedford and No. 10 Brockton 12-4 over the four games. Durfee earned a split with Dedham’s opponent Bishop Feehan.

“They are a hard working flooding defense type of team, that will come at you with some doubles and triples whenever they get that opportunity,” said Bowers. “We’ve been working on moving the ball quickly and letting the ball do some work for us.”

The teams share Brockton and Attleboro as common opponents with the Hawks splitting with the Boxers and winning their only meeting with the Blue Bombardiers, while Durfee was 0-1-1 against Brockton and 1-0-1 against Attleboro.

The Hilltoppers attack is led by Aaron DeMello and Ruben Rezendes, while their primary goalkeeper is Mike Janeiro.