Laconia, n.h. — Matthew Paradis, a sophomore on the Southern New Hampshire University men’s golf team, ended the run of Hanover Country Club’s Nick MacDonald at the New Hampshire Golf Association amateur championship with a 2-and-1 defeat of the former state champ on Friday morning at Laconia Country Club.

A graduate of Manchester Central High School, Paradis took the quarterfinal match by the scruff of the neck by winning the sixth, seventh and eighth holes to turn a 1-up lead into a 4-up cushion and force MacDonald, the 2010 state amateur champion, to press. The 27-year-old MacDonald, a Lebanon High graduate, closed to within two holes on three occasions over the back nine, but Paradis claimed the match with a halve on 17.

Paradis added a 3-and-2 semfinal win over another past champ, Ridgewood’s Jim Cilley, on Friday afternoon and will play for his first New Hampshire Amateur crown today. He’ll take on the home club’s Chris Houston. Houston beat Bretwood’s Cameron Salo, 4 and 2, in the morning quarters and Hooper’s Ryan Kohler, 2 up, in the afternoon semis.

The 36-hole final starts at 7 a.m. today.