NEEDHAM, Mass. -- It seemed as though an atypical season for Duxbury was going to come to an abrupt end on Friday in the first round of the Div. 1 South tournament under the lights at Memorial Field.

The visiting Dragons trailed Needham 7-3 heading into the fourth quarter and it was not just the deficit that left Duxbury fans feeling like the game was lost. Needham was possessing the ball well, winning the ground ball battle, dominating the face-off ‘X’, and playing shutdown defense.

In short, the Rockets were doing everything right and were in total control.

In the huddle before the fourth quarter, Duxbury coach Chris Sweet turned to junior attacker Bobby Maimaron and told him that he needed to step up and provide the Dragons with a spark.

Maimaron answered the bell and in the process saved Duxbury’s season. He scored three goals and assisted on two others in the fourth quarter, as the Dragons outscored the Rockets 6-0 over the final 12 minutes to earn a 9-7 victory and advance to the quarterfinal.

Sweet explained, “Between quarters I told him, ‘Bobby you need to take the game over; it’s on you. We need our attack to score.’ And he listened.”

Maimaron added, “We knew our offense was working it good, our shots weren’t falling. But we got that ground ball, settled it a little, got that first goal and then it was all [down]hill from there.”

The first goal came more than two minutes into the fourth quarter and it was Maimaron who stepped into a low-angle shot through a couple of legs that snuck past Needham goalie Ryan Christenson. Maimaron admitted that seeing the first goal hit the back of the net was the spark for the comeback.

He said, “I felt like I had a step on my man all night, but I couldn’t get my hands free. Just to get that one off and to have it hit the back of the net, that was a good feeling.”

The good feeling spread to the rest of the Dragons as well. Suddenly it was Duxbury with an extra spring in the step and a noticeable rise in energy. Once the momentum switched to the visiting bench, Needham could never get it back.

With 7:49 left Quinn Schomp aimed for the low corner and it bounced just in front of the goalie to cut the lead to 7-5. A minute later and Maimaron dodged from behind the cage and fired a shot off Christenson’s chest, mask, and arms that took a fortunate bounce for the Duxbury attacker and snuck across the line.

Needham junior Joe Bruno had been dominating on faceoffs and won the ensuing draw for the Rockets, but Needham raced down and took a quick shot that was saved by Brady Burke. Duxbury raced back and in transition, Maimaron flicked a pass to Riley Bergstrom to tie the game at 7-7.

“I think we ran out of some gas,” said Needham coach Dave Wainwright, “and I think we made some decisions on the offensive side that changed momentum and we just couldn’t get it back. There were some key shots that really trickled in on us and changed the momentum.”

Maimaron used another question mark dodge from the ‘X’ and another quick, wraparound shot to give Duxbury its first lead of the game at 8-7 with 5:08 remaining. However on the ensuing face-off, Needham was given a two-minute man-up opportunity.

The Duxbury defense, along with Burke, held off the Rockets and kept the one-goal advantage. In fact, the Dragons were able to force a turnover and for the second time in the quarter Maimaron fed Bergstrom cutting down the middle to extend the lead to 9-7.

Sweet said, “Our defense killed seven, nine penalties I think and Brady came up with some great saves. I’ll put the comeback on the defense for shutting Needham down in the second half.”

It was a compete turnaround for the Dragons to pull out the win. In the opening three quarters the Needham defense was stellar, led by Sam Eisenstadt, Michael Bliss, Luke Pascucci and Luke Gerraghty. Combined with a strong attacking performance by Antonio Trabucco (two goals and an assist in the first half), the Rockets led 6-2 at the break.

“We asked too much of our defense,” said Wainwright. “You can’t win playoff games with seven goals. And that’s been our problem this season; we’ve lost a lot of games because we couldn’t get more than seven goals.”

Wainwright joked that the Rockets may have let a lot of other teams down because now Duxbury was still alive. While this has not been the standard season filled with dominating wins, the Dragons remain a threat and Sweet is hoping this win could provide the impetus for a tournament run.

“We really haven’t done that all season long,” he said. So, now maybe they can believe they can make it happen. We did it for that half; let’s see if we can do it in the next game.”

Maimaron was sensing a rise in confidence from the win. He explained, “Since Billerica, we haven’t won a game against a good team and that’s a good team over there and I think we finally…finally feel good about ourselves again.”

Duxbury (11-7), the No. 10 seed, will take on No. 2 seed Catholic Memorial in the next round.