Old Lyme — Perhaps Old Lyme needs to chug a mixture of Mountain Dew and Red Bull before games. Or yell insults at one another. Or start a mosh pit.

Anything to get them energized for the first half of games.

The Wildcats scored just three goals in the first half against North Branford on Tuesday. They scored that many less than two minutes into the second half of their 17-12 loss between the Shoreline Conference's only two unbeaten girls' lacrosse teams.

“We started off a little bit flat, which we’ve been doing a little bit this season, but our second half is always so strong,” Old Lyme's Lydia Tinnerello said. “We just have to hype each other up at the beginning.

“The second half, we were just so hyped up and the momentum just carried us.”

The Thunderbirds scored five straight goals to take an 8-2 lead with over three minutes left in the first half. The Wildcats’ Anna Sather popped in a goal 28.9 seconds before halftime.

Old Lyme scored five times in the first seven minutes of the second half.

“The curse of the first half,” Wildcats head coach Emily Macione said. “We historically have been a second half team. We’ve had a couple of games this season where we have gotten off to a strong start in the first half. … That creates its own momentum. It helps us with our mental game to be up early because it lets us know, ‘Okay, we can be confident. We know what to do.’

“It’s kind of wanting to get out to that strong start (instead of) needing to have a few goals against us to feel that fire in the belly.”

Adriana Ingarra had three goals and three assists and Emmy Norton had two goals and four assists for North Branford (7-1, 5-0). Ali Barrett added two goals and three assists and Jessie Kilburn and Emilie Wilkinson both scored four times.

Paige Britton had four goals and an assist and Tinnerello added three goals and two assists for Old Lyme (5-3, 4-1). Also, Bella Arias scored three times and Emily Erne had 16 saves.

Britton and Daisy Colvin (two assists) scored back-to-back goals, respectively, 33 seconds into the second half to cut the Wildcats’ deficit to 8-5. It was also the start of a dizzying flurry as the teams combined to score 11 times in the first seven minutes of the second half, matching the number of first-half goals.

Barrett ended the offensive free-for-all with a goal to push the Thunderbirds lead to 14-8 with 18:56 left in the game.

Tinnerello had a goal with 1:57 remaining. Arias followed 18 seconds later with one of her own to cut Old Lyme's deficit to 16-12.

“What we need to be better about is having the mentality that the game isn’t over until it’s over because obviously, in that second half, we put two in the goal in 30 seconds right away,” Macione said. “That start of the second half for us was, ‘alright, we’re in this.’ … (we’ve got to do) that over the course of the game versus in little spurts.”

“I think it’s again getting that fire in the belly across the board that we need to have if we’re really going to make a run at anything, which I think we can.”

n.griffen@theday.com