There was only a fine-to-sometimes-heavier drizzle coming down on the field Saturday when St. Dominic Academy and Yarmouth squared off in a Class B North girls’ lacrosse semifinal, but the Clippers poured it on in the first half, taking an 8-1 lead before finishing off the Saints in a 13-6 victory.

The second-ranked Saints (13-1) had an unblemished regular season, then defeated No. 10 Camden Hills in the quarterfinals. Facing the two-time defending state champion Clippers (11-3), seeded third, was a different story.

“This was definitely the biggest challenge we had all season,” St. Dom’s coach Leslie Klenk said. “It probably would have been helpful had we played a couple games like this.”

The Saints had their chance early, controlling possession for five minutes after stopping Yarmouth’s opening-minute attack. St. Dom’s had a pair of free-position opportunities, and three shots on goal, but finished out the long possession without a goal to show for it.

“I don’t know quite what was going on down there,” said Klenk, who had to watch the offense from the far side of the field in the first half. “We weren’t doing our plays, we weren’t running our offense, so that was a little frustrating.”

Part of the Saints’ problem was the play between the pipes by Yarmouth goalie MaryKate Gunville, who stood tall during the first St. Dom’s surge.

“MaryKate, she’s so good. She’s just so good,” Yarmouth coach Dorothy Holt said. “She takes care of the ball, and she takes care of us. That’s how it starts … and she just carries the momentum into the rest of the team.”

The Saints’ initial attack ended around the six-minute mark of the first half. Just after the seven-minute mark the Clippers broke onto the scoreboard. Lilly Watson fed Eva Then. Less than three minutes later Katie Waeldner found Jessica Kirk.

Klenk called a timeout, sensing the game could possibly get out of control.

It did anyway.

The Saints broke their shutout, with Caroline Gastonguay feeding Rileigh Stebbins, but Cory Langenbach scored for Yarmouth 16 seconds later to secure the Clippers’ hold on momentum.

Langenbach scored again just over a minute later, Kirk tallied a first-half hat trick, and Ella Antolini and Meredith Lane both found the back of the net before halftime.

“They scored on the same play I think seven times,” Klenk said. “It was a cutter coming through on the left-hand side and we just didn’t see it early enough. I attribute it just to them being young and not seeing that kind of offense before.”

Gunville stopped an Avery Lutrzykowski free-position shot in the first minute, and Eliza Lunt scored a pair of goals by the three-minute mark.

But the second half didn’t continue to play out like the first half. Emma Theriault and Stebbins put together back-to-back goals to show that the Saints’ offense had a heartbeat.

“We had a little lapse,” Holt said. “When you get up it’s hard to keep your momentum.”

St. Dom’s played the Clippers even after halftime, with Gastonguay — the team’s leading scorer — tallying the final three goals for the home team.

“We don’t focus on any one player, so once we ran our offense, and started passing and cutting and doing our give-and-gos, that opened it up for (Caroline) and opened it up for a bunch of the other kids that scored,” Klenk said.

The St. Dom’s defense also did a better job slowing the Yarmouth attack, with goalie Abby Slonina making five of her six saves in the second half.

With a first varsity season in the books, Klenk was already looking forward to next season, when her team full of freshmen and sophomores gets a chance to play more teams like Yarmouth while competing in the Western Maine Conference. Klenk said there’s no shame in her team’s undefeated season being stopped by a perennial powerhouse like the Clippers.

“You can’t really knock that. If you have to lose to somebody that’s the person you want to lose to,” Klenk said. “We hung with them. I think it will show that we can really compete next year.”

wkramlich@sunjournal.com