YARMOUTH — Wells had to wait awhile for its first win of the season, as the Warriors went the first seven games on their schedule without a victory. So it was okay for the Warriors to wait a little bit longer, as they went to double overtime before finishing off North Yarmouth Academy 14-13 in a Class B girls lacrosse game at Lewis Field Tuesday.

The marathon game finally came to a close 1:01 into the second half of double overtime, as Mel Godin fired a shot from the left side past NYA (1-7) goalie Scout Fischman.

It sent the winless-no-more Warriors into a frenzy, and sophomore Godin into shock.

“I don’t know, it like happened too fast. I guess I wasn’t really thinking that much,” Godin said about what was going through her mind while taking the game-winning shot. “But I was nervous. I wanted to score.”

Godin also scored Wells’ (1-7) first goal, which came 11 minutes into the first half. That ended a 4-0 start by the Panthers.

NYA broke onto the scoreboard just 13 seconds into the game on a goal by Melanie Regan. Anna Laprise scored three minutes later, followed by a Mackenzie Sangster goal and another by Regan in the first 6:19 of the game.

“That was the first time we’ve been down 4-0 where we didn’t panic. I think that was huge,” said Wells head coach Jackie Proulx. “They knew four goals was nothing, and they took that and ran with it. You can get a goal in 10 seconds ”“ I just had to keep reminding them that.”

“We’ve been down more before, so once we started to score we knew that we could do it,” said Godin.

Wells reeled off a pair of goals 72 seconds apart ”“ by Alyssa Loukala and Leah Tufts ”“ to cut the deficit to 4-3 with just over five minutes left in the first half. The Panthers responded with two of their own, then Holly Robinson completed the first-half scoring with 1:19 left.

The deficit didn’t last long in the second half. Aimely Michaud-Nolan scored 43 seconds in, and Robinson tied the game 1:08 later.

Goals by Godin and Sydney Robinson 24 seconds apart four minutes later put Wells up 8-6 and forced NYA to call a timeout.

“I just said ”˜keep playing as a team, and this is our game and we deserve a win,’ and I think they realized that,” Proulx said of her halftime speech that sparked Wells’ fast start to the second half.

Megan McDonald made it a 5-0 run to start the half before the Panthers put in four straight over a two-minute span to retake the lead.

McDonald scored to knot the game up at 10-10 with less than nine minutes left in regulation, only for Acacia Bright to regain the lead for NYA less than two minutes later.

Goals by Holly Robinson and Michaud-Nolan put Wells on top with four minutes left, but Mary Noyes tied the game up again with 2:24 to play.

Noyes won the ensuing faceoff, then was slashed by Holly Robinson, who was trying to force a turnover. That gave NYA a man-advantage for two minutes with 2:12 to play. But the Panthers weren’t able to net the go-ahead goal.

“I didn’t want it to end like that. That’s insane that we were down a player, we all were tired, and they fought it so Holly could get back in there,” said Proulx. “She’s such a huge part of the team that we needed her back on the field, and so we drained those two minutes, which is awesome. I couldn’t believe it.”

With the score tied 12-12 at the end of regulation, the game then went to the first overtime, with two mandatory three-minute halves. Wells won the opening draw and kept the ball in its offensive end for the first 2:15 of the first period, but wasn’t able to get a shot off.

NYA went the other way with the ball after finally gaining possession and quickly took advantage. Isabella Munro wrapped around the left post and beat Wells goalie Kate Schott with 24 seconds remaining in the overtime’s first half.

Schott kept it a one-goal deficit with a big save against Sangster on a free position shot one minute into the second overtime, but Wells was still without a game-tying goal with time winding down.

Tufts, just a freshman, finally netted the equalizer with 29 seconds left, sending the game to a second, sudden-death overtime.

“I’ve never coached a sudden-death overtime, or played in a sudden-death overtime, and I was so impressed with their composure,” said Proulx. “They had to fight for a lot of minutes, and I had a lot of girls that were in there the whole entire time.”

The Warriors twice nearly ended the game in the first half of the sudden-death overtime, but Fischman stuffed both McDonald and Sydney Robinson on solid shot attempts.

McDonald rang a shot off a post 40 seconds into the second half of sudden death, as the game got increasingly more intense.

Then Godin finally put an end to what turned into a 60-minute game, as well as finally ending Wells’ winless start.

“We had a lot ”“ a lot ”“ of close games. I think we had a lot of games we should have won,” said Proulx. “This was not the easiest team to play; this was a tough game. And I think they learned from this that if you really work hard for the whole time, you can win.”

“Now that we finally won, I think we’ll be able to believe in ourselves more and win more,” said Godin, who led the Warriors with three goals.

Schott stopped nine shots in net for Wells, including three from free position in the first half while the Warriors were trying to tread water.

— Sports Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.