The Bishop Hendricken football team won its first league game of the season in a 21-14 thriller over North Kingstown last week and did it in unlikely fashion.

On Thursday, the Hawks decided to keep starting quarterback Jayden Falcone stashed on the bench while he recovers from injury and thrusted backup Dylan Lynch onto the field for his first-ever start. Lynch is one of four brothers which includes former Hendricken state championship quarterback David Lynch as well as last year’s basketball champion Devin Lynch.

Dylan was up for the challenge as he led the Hawks on a game-winning drive in the fourth quarter.

Tied at 14-14, the Hawks faced a fourth-and-2 situation at the NK 37-yard line. Hendricken called for a designed run for Lynch to execute. Not only did he scamper for the two yards necessary, but he would end up reaching the sidelines and rushing for the score which would be enough for the Hawks to secure the wild win.

“I just saw a hole and ran through it. I just kept running and it felt great to reach the end zone with no flags. It was great to celebrate with my team. We couldn’t really get the ball moving early, so we just kept running it and it worked out. The game plan was to just run the clock out and be careful with the ball,” said Lynch.

The Skippers would take an early 7-0 lead when they marched down the field to pick up a touchdown on their opening drive, then they would keep the momentum by picking off a Lynch pass the ensuing Hendricken drive.

Running back Ronjai Francis would find the end zone on an 11-yard run early in the second quarter to get Hendricken on the board, but the NK offense dug into its back of tricks and pulled off a double-pass touchdown to regain the lead less than three minutes later.

Lynch would then lead the Hawks on one final drive, capped off by an Oscar Weah rushing touchdown to knot the score at 14 heading into halftime.

NK had a chance to take the lead early in the fourth quarter on a field goal, but Hendricken came up with the big play once again as it blocked the attempt to give Lynch and the offense the ball one more time.

It was a prototypical Hendricken win, in that the Hawks remained patient, conservative, and wore down another opposing high-powered offense deep in the second half.

Lynch made the most of his opportunity and hit his stride as the game progressed.

“I am prepared every week. Falcone wasn’t right so I just went out there and did my job. At the beginning it felt like a lot of pressure but once we came back and fought, started to play our game, we just got comfortable and ran with it,” said Lynch, who was also excited to add to his family name at Hendricken. “I’m going to tell (my brothers) about this a lot because I don’t think any of them have done this.”

Hendricken improved to 1-0 and will take on Portsmouth this Friday.