CAPE ELIZABETH — The Scarborough High boys’ lacrosse team appears vastly improved this spring, but with the game on the line Thursday, Cape Elizabeth had the final answer in a compelling early-season showdown.

Nick Martin scored on a behind-the-back shot with 1:28 to go in overtime to give the Capers a 7-6 victory. The Red Storm led by two goals at halftime and, after falling behind in the fourth quarter, forced overtime against a team it’s never defeated.

“It was great competition,” said Cape Coach Ben Raymond. “Great for the kids to have to dig deep when things aren’t necessarily going their way.”

Cape Elizabeth (2-0), which defeated defending Class C champion Waynflete by 11 goals in its opener last week, scored first on a Killian Lathrop goal.  Scarborough (0-1), which was 3-9 last season and missed the playoffs, countered on an unassisted goal from Jared Quintiliani.

With 2:29 to go in the first period, Nic Boudreau put the Capers back on top, but the Red Storm drew even on a man-up goal from Ethan Kavanagh late in the quarter.

Scarborough then took a 4-2 lead to halftime, thanks to second-period goals from Quintiliani and Jared Nelson.

Cape Elizabeth then locked down on defense in the third quarter and scored three times to go back on top.

Boudreau scored to snap a nearly 21-minute scoring drought, Archie McEvoy tied it and Lathrop’s second goal, with 1:53 remaining in the period, made it 5-4 Capers heading into the fourth period.

“Coach Raymond told us we just needed to calm down, that two goals wasn’t a big deficit,” said defenseman Max Patterson. “He said if we ran our offense like before, we’d be fine and he was exactly right.”

The Red Storm made it 5-5 early in the fourth quarter on a Quintiliani goal. After McEvoy put the Capers back on top with 9:53 to play in regulation, Quintiliani’s fourth goal made it 6-6 with 3:22 left.

Each team had looks late in regulation but couldn’t score.

Scarborough won the overtime faceoff but Patterson intercepted a pass. The Capers transitioned to offense and after McEvoy hit the post, they kept possession. Lathrop set up Martin, who went behind the back to beat Scarborough goalie Austin Brown.

“I saw Killian dodge, beat his man and I cut down in front,” Martin said. “I thought I’d throw it behind the back to increase my angle and it just went in. It felt great.”

“It was a great finish,” Raymond said. “He probably increased his angle going behind the back.”

Cape Elizabeth finished with a 22-19 edge in shots on goal and got 13 saves from Jack Dresser.

Scarborough got 15 saves from Brown but turned the ball over 20 times.

“I’m very encouraged,” said Red Storm Coach Zach Barrett. “The boys wanted this one bad. One thing that killed us, we couldn’t get the ball out of our own end. If we did that better, it would have been a different game.”