CHESTNUT HILL — Head coach Brian Foley flipped the page as soon as his Pope Francis boys hockey team lost in last year’s Div. 1 state semifinals, fully expecting to again be in a position to reach TD Garden with the group he had coming back.

A disappointing showing earlier in the year raised some doubts, but Foley’s Cardinals ended up rewarding his faith.

Behind a hat trick from junior Gabe Kolodjay, as well as a gritty defensive stand to hold off a late rally from No. 6 Hingham, seventh-seeded Pope Francis punched its ticket to the Div. 1 state final Sunday with a 5-4 win in a semifinal at Boston College’s Conte Forum.

“I was thinking we’d be in this situation, but as the season started, I started to doubt that,” Foley said. “But I was very optimistic that this team, the talent on this team, if we got them playing the right way, would be a threat to get to the Garden. … In the playoffs, we’ve just been a different team, a different level. And we’ve gotten to the level that I thought we could get to in December.”

Discipline. Effort on back-checks. Scoring execution.

Those were some of the things missing for Pope Francis that it found in a dominant tournament run, and all of it was needed to beat a high-flying Harbormen group.

Hingham showed its threat in the very first minute, scoring 57 seconds in on Quinn Allen’s tally. It didn’t take long for Pope Francis to respond, though, with Cole Hrapchak’s shot from the point sneaking through traffic about five minutes later.

Then, with 1:56 left in the first, a textbook give-and-go on an odd-man rush had Whitaker Zinger assisting Kolodjay for the 2-1 lead.

“That was huge,” Kolodjay said. “They scored, we knew we weren’t going to win with one goal. We knew we had to score more than one goal, obviously, but that response was what won us the game.”

Hingham’s Sean Carroll (17) tries to recover the puck as Pope Francis Prep’s Matt Regan (15) closes in during the Div. 1 boys hockey semifinal at Boston College. (Amanda Sabga/Boston Herald)

The Harbormen’s attack has been one of the state’s best all year, though George Ramsey (22 saves) helped Pope Francis limit them as its own attack flourished.

Kolodjay delivered a highlight-reel goal on a one-on-one rush in the first 14 seconds of the second period, dangling past the last defender before finishing off a 3-1 lead. Liam Dolan added another with 8:34 left in the frame, securing Pope Francis’ fourth straight game with at least four goals.

“They’ve executed,” Foley said. “They’re just making more hockey plays and getting pucks to the net, driving the net. That leads to goals, that leads to chaos in front of the net. That’s really what the team’s been doing a good job of.”

Kolodjay’s second goal was his favorite, but called them all important – which proved true late.

Nick Bigelow’s tally in the final minute of the second period cut Hingham’s deficit to 4-2, only for Kolodjay to again score with 7:41 to go for a 5-2 lead. But the Harbormen didn’t lay down, scoring twice just 1:08 apart on goals from Sean Carroll and Bigelow for a 5-4 deficit with 3:05 left.

Closing out the game was chaotic. Pope Francis handled it with poise.

“All week, leading up to this game, we work on 5-on-6, clearing the puck out,” Kolodjay said. “I think that really helped us and got us the dub.”