Had the Bridgewater-Raynham hockey team played the first two periods the way it played the third, it may have been a different outcome.

The top-seeded Trojans, coming off their best season ever record-wise, allowed eighth-seeded Marshfield to two first-period goals and lost, 4-1, in the quarterfinals of the Division 1 South Sectional Tournament at Gallo Ice Arena on Sunday.

The Trojans had 12 shots on goal the first two periods, then in the third period fired 22 on goal, another six blocked by defensemen, but were only able to beat freshman goalie Connor Maher once.

“This was an unbelievable game,” said Rams coach Dan Connolly. “Bridgewater-Raynham had us hanging on at the end. I’ve got to give them credit, they didn’t give up. They played real hard, have a strong first line.

“My kids a great job of blocking shots, my goaltender was huge. Bridgewater-Raynham really came hard in the third period against us and has us back on our heels.”

The Rams dominated the first two periods and had a pair of goals 1:10 apart in the first period by Ryan Connors to show for it.

“Getting those two early goals was huge,” said Connolly. “They (B-R) were the No. 1 seed and we had to start believing in ourselves. It doesn’t matter that it was No. 1 vs. No. 8. The kids realized it was another hockey game and went out and played their hearts out.”

The Rams seemed to win every battle along the boards, at center ice and in both ends for the first 30 minutes.

“The kids were definitely tentative for two periods,” said Trojans coach Mark Jones. “We were a little bit tight. Instead of playing our game, which is speed and hitting, we played like we were afraid of making a mistake.

“Our big thing was we wanted to get a lot of shots on the goalie and crash the net .To Marshfield’s credit, they didn’t allow us to do that the first two periods. They played extremely hard and out worked us for two periods.

“We’ve averaged 35 shots a game this year and the first two periods we only had 12.”

Jake McDonough, off a turnover in the Trojans’ end, put the Rams up 3-0 at 6:35 of the third period. Conor Mahoney scored at 14:59 into an empty net.

“Give Marshfield credit, when they got the opportunity, they cashed in on it,” said Jones. “That was the difference in the game.”

The long Trojans goal came at 10:36 of the third period off a face off when Jim Weldon fired a wrist shot from 15 feet out under the crossbar.

“It was funny, we wanted to get the puck low and go after rebounds,” said Jones. “Then it’s a shot to the top corner that beats him.”

That was the 12th of 22 shots in the period. Over the final four minutes the Trojans fired another 10 on goal, but were unable to beat Maher.

Weldon, Ryan Donovan (one assist), Adam McGrath, Anthony Hardy and Josh DeAngelis all had close-in shots at Maher that were turned aside.

“I’ve got to credit the goalie, he did an incredible job,” said Jones. “In the third period, it was his goaltending and a little bit of luck. A lot of our shots in close during the third period hit him rather than the corner of the net. Maybe we were squeezing our sticks a little bit harder.

“To his credit, he didn’t leave many rebounds in the third period. The first two periods, he was leaving rebounds, but we were a step slow getting to the puck and their defense did a nice job of clearing the puck away.”