GORHAM — It was a tale of two halves in Saturday’s men’s lacrosse game between University of New England and University of Southern Maine ”“ and the Nor’easters flexing their muscles in the second half was the difference in a 13-5 victory at Hannaford Field.

The game was a back and forth affair during the first 30 minutes, as the deficit for either team was never more than one goal. The Huskies (2-1) opened the scoring 1:21 in on a Jaymz McStowe unassisted goal, but the Nor’easters took the lead with two goals over the next four minutes. The teams traded goals ”“ as well as post-ringing shots ”“ late in the opening period as UNE held a slim 3-2 lead.

Southern Maine took the lead back with goals by Austin Watts and Burleigh Desjardins in the first three minutes of the second period.

UNE (4-3) countered with a picture-perfect counterattack goal less than four minutes later, as Philip Young carried the ball into the attacking zone, dished to Dan Auger to the right, who then tossed to J.T. Oliver at the left post for a quick flip-in.

“We had a couple nice transition goals where three guys touched the ball, got a couple hockey assists in there that don’t get recorded, but guys were being very unselfish,” said UNE head coach Charlie Burch.

David Rubenstein scored four minutes later for the first of his game-high three goals as UNE took a 5-4 lead into halftime.

The Nor’easters appeared out of sorts to start the second half, forcing Burch to call a timeout just 1:30 in.

“I can’t really remember (what I told the team). I know that we just talked about a couple of minor adjustments to do on offense,” Burch said of the timeout. “They were jumping a little back and forth between a zone and a man-to-man. We had a plan to attack it depending on what it was.”

UNE stopped forcing passes and started finding the back of the net as a cause. Shamus Higginbottom scored 5:24 into the third period, which started a string of three goals in 2:17. Rubenstein’s second goal ended the short string and forced USM to call a timeout.

The bleeding didn’t stop, however, for the Huskies, as UNE scored two goals in the final three minutes of the third and three more in the first six minutes of the fourth to increase its lead to 13-4.

UNE’s 10-0 run finally came to an end when Nate DelGiudice scored for USM with less than eight minutes left.

The Nor’easters stuffed a Huskies offense that had averaged 15 goals in its first two games. UNE has now held three of its last five opponents to five goals.

“I thought the defense played really well,” said Burch. “We played well down at Widener despite a loss on Wednesday. The defense played well despite giving up 12 goals down at Widener, so they just tightened up even better today.”

UNE now has one fewer victory than it did a season ago, when the Nor’easters slogged through a 5-12 campaign, including 2-6 in Commonwealth Coast Conference play. That season ended with a loss to Wentworth, which UNE will play on Wednesday as it opens conference play at home.

“I think so,” Burch said when asked about being ready for CCC play. “Wentworth has always been a tough game. They kept us out of the conference playoffs last year.”

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