Old Lyme — Brian Martin, now in his 10th season as the Bacon Academy boys’ lacrosse coach, has a pretty good grasp on his team.

The Bobcats had just one goal at the half of Thursday’s game at Old Lyme, an abnormally low total for the sport, never mind for a team with Bacon’s talent.

“We were telling our guys that their goals were going to fall,” Martin said, “and before we started the second half we told them that in about five minutes that 2-1 score was gonna be different.”

Bacon wasted no time proving Martin right as it scored three quick goals coming out of the half and kept on rolling for a 9-3 win over the Wildcats.

“(We talked about) trying to find cutters going through the middle,” Bacon sophomore Ethan LoVetere said about the halftime talk. “The first half, we weren’t really doing what we usually do.”

Senior Jameson Pirro scored seconds into the third period and LoVetere followed with two of his town before three minutes had passed.

“Really, the halftime talk was just getting these guys to settle down a little bit,” Martin said. “We’re very young in spots and kind of what you see in the game is a little bit of those nerves showing up. So we just told them to hang out and chill for a little bit and relax and just play their game.”

LoVetere had four goals and two assists and Pirro scored three times for the Bobcats (2-0), last season’s Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II champion.

Senior Jack Holmes added a goal and two assists for Bacon while junior Dante Colella scored and classmate Chase Goulet played a strong game in net (nine saves).

The Bobcats may have some young, inexperienced players in spots but not as many as Old Lyme. It started two freshmen and a sophomore on defense and had other underclassmen scattered across other parts of its lineup.

“We’ve got a couple of kids that are getting on the field that have never actually played lacrosse before, so they’re learning as they go,” Wildcats head coach George Hudson said with a smile. “We’re young.”

Junior John Buckley and sophomore Mason Bussman each had a goal and an assist for Old Lyme (0-2) and junior Jackson Bullock scored. Senior Joseph Montazella added 11 saves, including three terrific saves in the first half.

Buckley scored with 43.2 seconds left in the second period to give the Wildcats a 2-1 lead.

“They’re taking it in stride,” Hudson said about the team’s growing pains. “I think we’re learning every day and since we started, we went to the Guilford Jamboree (to begin the preseason), and we’re seeing the growth through-and-through. I think we’re getting better every game. It’s just going to be a learning process this year.”

Pirro scored 29 seconds into the third quarter to tie the game. LoVetere followed with two more as Bacon went ahead, 4-2, with 9:03 still left in the quarter.

LoVetere scored again at 4:42 to push the Bobcats lead to 5-2.

“We really turned it up in the second half as you can see,” LoVetere said. “I think we just got hyped; we got motivated.”

n.griffen@theday.com