East Lyme — Erik Aarsand describes one East Lyme game this season where he said you could “cut the tension with a knife.” The Vikings' last game against Bacon Academy, too, was decided by a one-goal margin.

“Finally, everyone just took a big breath,” Aarsand said. “Usually everyone's all tight and nervous.”

Aarsand, a senior attack, scored five goals Thursday to help lift the East Lyme High School boys' lacrosse team to a 9-3 victory over Waterford, with the game opening up in the second half after the Vikings led just 3-1 at halftime.

East Lyme coach Gary Wight pointed to his team's timing for any bumps in the road on offense.

The Vikings are 7-1 with their only loss to Glastonbury, 13-3 on April 16. East Lyme's last game was a 10-9 victory Tuesday over Eastern Connecticut Conference Small Division opponent Bacon.

“Offensively, we're just a half a second away from making really good passes,” said Wight, whose team is the defending ECC Large Division and ECC tournament champion. “It's a game of momentum. When you score, everything loosens up and the timing seems to come. We're still looking for that magic. We're just working on our timing.”

The Vikings led 2-0 after the first quarter against Waterford, getting the first goal from Dillon Jennings about halfway through and the first from Aarsand with 3 minutes, 48 seconds to play in the period.

Waterford's Michael Beltran was the first to score in the second quarter, pulling the Lancers within 2-1 before Aarsand made it 3-1 at the half.

The Vikings made it 5-2 after three quarters before unloading for three straight goals to start the fourth, one by Aarsand, one by Aaron Dixon and one by Chris Apicelli, all within two minutes of each other. Aarsand scored his final goal with six seconds remaining.

East Lyme graduated seven ECC all-stars from last season's team, leading to a shift in the responsibility among Vikings players.

Still, the Vikings are 4-0 atop the ECC Large Division.

“He's a strong player and when he's not open, there's other guys who can step up,” Wight said of Aarsand. “I'm happy with that. Sometimes I think our guys need to be a little more selfish. Again, once we get our timing, we can be an explosive offensive team.

“We have contests coming up with Conard, Hand, Guilford, Barlow … two weeks from now hopefully we're playing our best lacrosse.”

Kyle MacDonnell and Mason Pagan had two assists each for East Lyme and goalies Anders Aarsand and Ryan Janovic combined for 12 saves.

Waterford, meanwhile, was led by two goals from Beltran and 15 saves from goalie Taylor Huta.

The Lancers are 5-4 overall and share the lead in the ECC Small Division with Stonington and Bacon, all 3-1. Waterford was 5-11 last year and didn't qualify for the state tournament for the first time in five seasons.

Coach Chris Landry said because of the low numbers on last year's team, some of his players, starters even, were playing both varsity and JV.

“(East Lyme is) a strong program. They've got great skills. They look for each other. They're unselfish,” Landry said. “Their depth goes a long way. … The Small Division is wide open between us Stonington and Bacon; it will be fun to see what happens the second time around. We're trying to build here.

“The difference from last year is we have depth. We just didn't have the numbers. This year we have an athletic defense and we have one of the top goalies in the league when you can play the way he did today. It's going to be a special group. East Lyme is still the top dog in the league. But when we started we couldn't hold them under 10 goals. … I'm very proud of my kids.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday