On Saturday, James Testa completed the final leg of the MetroLacrosse Champions for Community Relay that delivered the game ball of the Syracuse-Virginia national semifinal from the steps of the State House in Boston 34 miles to midfield at Gillette Stadium.

As one of three people -- himself, P.J. Bernard and James Teston (the one who actually gave the ball to the lead ref) -- to walk onto the Gillette field, he capped an Olympic torch-style relay that weaved through all the towns served by MetroLacrosse, carrying the organization's flag for the final steps. (Click for video)

On Sunday, he walked away with a game ball.

Testa, an 12-year old from East Boston, scored one of the goals in the 2-2 tie between the two MetroLacrosse middle school all-star teams that played at halftime of the D-III Championship. The game pitted a team comprised of middle schoolers from Boston's Roxbury and Dorchester neighborhoods against one comprised of middle schoolers from Chelsea and East Boston. And, in front of around 24,000 people, give or take those in line for fried dough, the teams were at the center.

"Usually at our games there's a couple parents there," Testa said. "And when you score here you hear the whole crowd."

"Man, I'm jealous," said volunteer coach Pat Heffernan, who played college ball at Connecticut College and bounced all over the field yesterday during the game. "I never played in front of this many people. Three-hundred fifty, maybe."

The game resounded as a big win for Boston-based MetroLacrosse, the largest urban lacrosse and education program in the country. Now in its eighth year, it's an organization that has begun to serve as the model for similar programs designed to spread the game into urban areas that have traditionally gone toward basketball and football, if you're lucky.

Dorchester and Roxbury, like most of the neighborhoods served by Metro, have been gouged by crime and the rest of the signposts of urban decay. So, for Metro and programs like it, lacrosse acts as a conduit through which the organizers can bring kids growing up in rough communities some stability and, most importantly, hope.

"It's incredibly important [to spread the game into urban areas]," said MetroLacrosse president and CEO Emily Helm. "We talk all the time in the lacrosse community about the growth of the game, more people participating, but there's also this huge opportunity for more kinds of people to participate, and to make it a sport that's really accessible for anybody who wants to pick up a stick and play."

"I've had a lot of opportunities afford to me related to my involvement in lacrosse," said staffer Mike Levin, goalie for Major League Lacrosse's Rochester Rattlers. "For me the ultimate rewarding experience is to see the kids, to see the opportunities afforded to the kids because of lacrosse."

Today, Metro implements its opportunity-opening strategy through its RESPECT program, an acronym that stands for responsibility, effort, sportsmanship, participation, enthusiasm, communication and teamwork. A long acronym, definitely. A big task, doubtlessly.

"We're really helping kids develop their academic skills, so they have opportunities with the sport and their academic skills to go to college and take their participation to levels beyond just a youth league," Helm said.

The kids are starting young. Testa started when he was nine, for example. Free equipment and training are good magnets, he said.

"Lacrosse is really an expensive sport and I get all my equipment for free," Testa said. "A lot of kids don't have the money."

And now see hope shine, see it teem under the boom of 20,000 voices on a surface belonging to the best football team of the decade (before the game, staffer and coach J.J. Jenkins got the teams together in a 'Hype Circle' and said "you guys are in the house of champions").

And now trace it backwards.

Trace it back a long time before the Champions for Community Relay began. See it start a long time before MetroLacrosse became a year-round program, with a $1.5 million working budget, a staff of 12 and a volunteer corps of 120 people who coach and mentor participants from third grade through high school twice a week.

Trace the path of hope back to when, eight years ago, Helm and a few others walked around schools, trying to recruit people to enlist in a sport that few people in these areas had even seen, let alone played.

"That was a little tough," Helm said.

Early on, the recruiting plodded. But trace hope forward now, as the program grew, thanks to the commitment of everyone involved and the backing of New Balance, Warrior and others, along with 2008 Championships tournament director Phil Buttafuoco. But now, the game sells itself. Well, not technically. The kids do.

"I think it's special because they have a special niche with the game, because a lot of their friends don't play, so there's a cool aspect to it," Jenkins, who played at Guilford, said. "They're walking around with their lacrosse sticks in Dorchester and Roxbury, and their friends done't know what it is. There's a sense of pride of being some of the few people that know how to play, but they also wanna get their friends involved."

Now walk forward alongside hope, to two years ago, when it was announced that the Lacrosse Championships were coming to New England. See the wheels start to turn as Helm and her staff found ways to get involved, finally organizing the Relay, which involved 34 different teams -- including representatives from the Boston Cannons, the Tewaaraton Foundation, the NCAA, alumni and others -- each running a mile and passing the ball to the next group.

"This was a great opportunity, while the eyes of the lacrosse world were on Boston and New England to showcase what our program can do and New England can offer for the lacrosse community," McCavanaugh said. "We hope it becomes a supplement to future championships."

Now see James Testa, all four-foot-nothing of him, depending on haircut, racing around the field with his friends, digging for ground balls, jamming his mark on defense.

And see hope alive. See it very much alive.