East Lyme — Nine minutes into the game, the scoreboard read "New Fairfield 4, East Lyme 0," creating a potential circumstance not lost on junior Madison Cohen.

"Well," she said later, "you always think this might be the day things might not go so well."

Then Cohen grinned and said, "But everyone on our team knows we can come back. There's so much heart."

There were so many goals forthcoming, too. The third-seeded Vikings had the four-goal deficit pared to one by halftime and proceeded to inundate No. 11 New Fairfield from there, earning a 13-9 victory and a trip to the Class M state girls' lacrosse semifinals for the first time since the program's state championship year of 2006.

East Lyme (21-2) meets No. 2 Hand of Madison in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Branford High School. Hand defeated East Lyme 13-8 in Madison on May 21.

Jessica Lillquist and Kiki Ryan scored three goals apiece (Ryan scored all three in the second half) and Cohen and Jill Bartlett scored two apiece for the Vikings.

Goalkeeper Jane Bartlett made 12 saves, including two while the score was 4-0 that prevented the deficit from making coach Phil Schnieder pace even faster.

"We haven't really played from behind a lot," Schneider said. "But we are a second-half team. The comfort level is there."

Cohen's first goal with 19:30 remaining brought East Lyme back from a 6-4 deficit and to a 6-6 tie. Erin DeLucca gave East Lyme its first lead 57 seconds later. After New Fairfield tied it, Caroline Regan gave the Vikings the lead for good with 14:32 left, assisted by Shanelle D'Alessio.

Cohen, Ryan and Lillquist scored in the next three minutes to make it 11-7.

"From the beginning, we thought we had a team that would do well," Cohen said. "It means so much to keep going."

East Lyme won the 2006 title under co-coaches Gigi Begin and Lori Balantic. The Vikings have dominated the Eastern Connecticut Conference since, but haven't made a run in the state tournament until now.

"It's a little tough to wrap your head around it right now," Schneider said. "We'll enjoy this. But come Wednesday, we're playing again. We'll compete."

m.dimauro@theday.com