All good things must come to an end, and it did last Wednesday night when the Dragons lost their chance for a seventh straight state lacrosse title in a 12-11 overtime loss to St. John’s Prep of Danvers.

Having taken a 12-7 pounding from the Eagles earlier in the season, the Dragons were the underdogs despite their No. 1 seed. However, you would never have known it by their first-half play.

Getting possession right away, Duxbury had several glittering scoring opportunities in the first few minutes but couldn’t capitalize.

After the Prep responded with a Colin Blackwell score at the 6:35 mark, Duxbury went to work and never trailed again until overtime, building leads of 5-1 and 7-3 in the first half before surrendering it with 1:51 left in regulation.

It didn’t take long for Duxbury to recover from Blackwell’s score, as junior Bryan Barry scored the first of his three goals just 33 seconds later to tie it at 1-1.  Less than three minutes later Barry gave his team the lead when he cut through the slot and pivoted to beat goalie Nick Triano over his shoulder.

Twenty seconds later senior captain John Ricciardi stunned the St. John’s crowd when he took a beautiful feed from sophomore Paul Hellar and buried his shot into the far corner past Triano for a 3-1 lead.

Hellar would open the second quarter with a goal of his own, after which senior Nick Woodgate would take over the Dragon offense with three goals over the next six minutes.

An errant clearing pass allowed the Eagles to stay close in the quarter, but the Dragons still maintained a comfortable lead at halftime as both teams went to their locker rooms.

It was a totally different Prep team in the second half, as they looked more like the team that manhandled the Dragons earlier in the season.

Junior attack Matt Scalise scored 32 seconds into the half and classmate Jon Farrow cut the lead to 7-5 at the 7:50 mark.

While Duxbury did have some early scoring opportunities, some ill-advised shots whistled past Triano with no Duxbury players on the end line.

Hellar would finally get his team out of its rut with 2:22 to go, taking a nice feed from junior Kane Haffey to make it 8-5, only to have an uncovered Jimmy O’Connell beat Duxbury goalie Mickey Zaverucha a minute later.

Just 12 minutes away from another title in their lacrosse dynasty, the Dragons came out firing. Unfortunately, Triano came out saving, as he stopped a pair of Duxbury shots from point-blank range: the second being a breakaway shot from Hellar.

After stopping a man-up situation for the Dragons, the Eagles got possession and called a timeout with 8:44 left in the game. When they came back on the field, Scalise walked out of the corner to Zaverucha’s left and beat the senior to cut the margin to 8-7.

With the game slipping away, Hellar responded with a brilliant move behind the net, dodging his defender as he slithered out front to beat Triano.

Seamus Connelly hit the post 11 seconds later and Barry took a pass from Woodgate with 7:13 remaining and buried his shot for a 10-7 lead.

A man-up situation for the Prep was about to test Zaverucha, but he came up big with a pair of sparkling saves before Garrett Campbell made it 10-8 with 4:31 left on the clock.

An Eagle score 26 seconds later made it a three-minute game and Farrow struck first, rushing down the right wing and bouncing his shot past Zaverucha that tied the score at 10.

Both teams were feeling the pressure in the final minute, as turnovers appeared to kill scoring chances for both squads. Whoever could hold onto the ball would likely win the title.

With 34 seconds to go Duxbury took possession and rushed into the zone, finding Connelly all alone from 10 yards out where he fired a rocket past Triano with 18.3 seconds left and title No. 8 in clear view.

The Prep had no intention of surrendering so quickly, as Blackwell won the ensuing face-off cleanly and rushed downfield, firing his shot off the post and leaving a rebound for Campbell, who swatted it into the open net with 7.6 seconds left in regulation.

The Dragons won the face-off in OT, but Triano saved the day once again with a point-blank save, handing off to defender James Fahey, who raced up field and beat Zaverucha for the crown.

“The way I saw it in the second half was their goalie and our shot selection,” said Coach Chris Sweet. “ I certainly thought we had our chances to finish them off at the end, but their goalie came up huge. Both goalies played great and we have certainly won our share of one-goal games. Tonight our luck just ran out and we played one heck of a team. They deserve to be champions because they beat us twice this year. It was a great game for the fans, but I’m disappointed because my boys played great all year long and I’m proud of the way the Duxbury team presented themselves this season.”