AUBURN — Down by five goals with less than five minutes to play would have been too much to overcome for most teams.

But not the undefeated St. Dom’s boys’ lacrosse team.

With their season on the line, the Saints scored five goals in the final 4:52 of regulation and capped the comeback with a Troy Haefele sudden-death overtime goal in a 14-13 Eastern Class B semifinal win over No. 3 Freeport on Saturday. The victory lifted the second-seeded Saints (13-0) to their first regional lacrosse final.

The Saints had already once inched their way back into the match. Late in the third quarter, they scored the final four goals of the frame after trailing 9-4. So when Thomas Dorsey netted his sixth goal of the match for the Falcons with 6:34 remaining in regulation, the home team didn’t fold its tents.

“We’ve been there before,” St. Dom’s coach Dave Haefele said. “It was the guys. They know what they’re capable of.”

“We looked at each other and said, ‘we’re doing this,'” said senior captain Trevar Haefele, who netted two goals and assisted on six others, including his younger brother’s game winner. “They had some penalties and our hustle created some opportunities from those penalties.”

Matt Adams ignited the comeback goal in transition off a feed from Troy Haefele. Less than a minute later, Tim Day fired a long, one hopper past Freeport keeper Alex Sturtevant (14 saves) with the Saints a man up. With 3:18 to play, it was Kevin Costello’s turn from in front of the goal on a feed from Trevor Haefele behind the Falcon net, and the lead was cut to two.

“They had a zone,” said Trevar Haefele, who played up front, along the backline and even spent the final 6:05 of the first half as the keeper after a pair of penalties sent starting keeper Cody Rodrigue (14 saves) to the sidelines until halftime. “We started our offense from the top (at the start of the match) instead of behind the net. We were playing into their zone. We figured it out at the end.”

With the Saints furiously putting pressure on the Falcons in the final two minutes, Sturtevant came up big. First, he stopped a low liner off the stick of Costello. Moments later he helped steer a Chris Finlay shot wide of the net.

“Our keeper was amazing,” said Freeport coach Geoff Arris. “He’s just a sophomore. He’ll be one of the best in the state in a couple of years.”

With 1:20 to play and the Saints a man up, Anthony Fagone threaded a pass from the wing to Day who snapped a bouncer past Sturtevant. With 47.3 seconds left in regulation, Dave Haefele called a timeout to settle his team down. Less than 10 seconds later, Adams (five goals) took a feed on the left wing from Trevar Haefele and whipped a waist-high shot into the net.

The home team won the faceoff to begin the sudden death period as Trevar Haefele came away with the ball and the Saints again went on the offensive. Twice they were thwarted on spectacular saves by Sturtevant. With 3:16 gone in the session, Trevar Haefele weaved his way through the Falcons’ defensive zone and hit his brother streaking in on the right wing. Troy Haefele’s left handed shot zipped into the top corner on the far side and brought instant bedlam on the Saints’ side of the field.

“The defense overcommitted on Tim (Day),” said Trevar Haefele on the final offensive foray. “I knew the next guy was going to do the same thing. I hitched him and Troy was wide open.”

“I don’t want to blame anything specifically,” said Arris on the Saints’ comeback. “We just stopped playing our game. The hustle was there, but the team concept wasn’t.”

The Falcons built their leads Saturday by finding open areas in front of the Saints’ goal. Three times Evan Hench found Dorsey for easy goals along the crease area. Jackson Dodge also found some open room to net three goals of his own. He also dished out a pair of assists.