FALMOUTH — The Kennebunk High girls’ lacrosse team again relied on its impressive defense Tuesday night, sending Falmouth to its first loss of the season, 9-5.

The Rams (8-1) have a seven-game winning streak.

“Our defense is pretty stifling,” said Kennebunk Coach Annie Barker. “We thought about doing something different with it and I was like ‘nope, let’s play them straight up and see what we can do.’

“Our defense is so strong right now and we wanted to see if we could do it straight up, and if we had to make a change we would have made (one).”

Kennebunk, the defending Class B state champion, stifled the Yachtsmen (8-1), especially after the midway point of the first half.

Kennebunk held Falmouth scoreless for 36 minutes, 5 seconds in a drought that spanned the end of the first half and most of the second.

It wasn’t just goals that were hard to come by for Falmouth. The Yachtsmen managed just three shots in the entire second half.

“What killed us was turnovers,” said Falmouth Coach Kait Johnson. “That made us not be able to have possession on the attack. We didn’t make it down there often enough to give ourselves the opportunity to score.

“Our turnovers happened a lot in the midfield, or in the first couple of seconds when we would get it over the 30. It was definitely frustrating.”

At halftime the Yachtsmen clung to a 4-3 lead.

Devon Sarazin of Falmouth opened the scoring from Sydney Bell to begin what proved to be a back-and-forth first half.

Leading the Yachtsmen in the half was Olivia Stucker, who had a goal and two assists.

The Yachtsmen also got first-half goals from Bell and Christina Oakes.

Kennebunk answered with goals from Briannagh Beaudette, Katherine Koch and Erin Gorton, who scored off a free position look.

Less than three minutes into the second half, Leah Dumas of Kennebunk made it 4-4 after a Falmouth turnover in the defensive zone.

Gorton beat keeper Mary Budri four minutes later for a lead that Kennebunk wouldn’t give up.

After forcing a turnover, Kennbunk continued to pressure Budri, with Gabrielle Fogg making it a two-goal lead with just over 15 minutes to play.

With 7:03 remaining, Dumas scored from Gorton to extend the Rams’ lead to three goals before Beaudette all but clinched it with 4:49 to play when her goal provided Kennebunk with an 8-4 lead.

From there the Rams continued to possess the ball in their offensive end, and Dumas added a goal with just over three minutes left.

With 1:35 remaining, Falmouth finally snapped its scoring drought when Bell connected with Sarazin with the final goal of the game.