AUBURN — On one side of the scoring tent, unbeaten St. Dom’s toed the sideline. On the other, North Yarmouth Academy.

Sound familiar?

Former rivals in most sports, the Saints and Panthers are relatively new opponents in lacrosse. But the tenor of Saturday’s Eastern Class B semifinal was the same as it has always been: tough, gritty, hard-nosed and physical.

On the back of a four-goal effort from Finn Hadlock and a steady, ball-controlling offense in the fourth quarter, No. 4 NYA rebounded from an 0-3 deficit in the first quarter to post a 10-7 upset victory over the top-seeded Saints.

“We thought we could dominate the game, but we had a little bit of a slow start,” Hadlock said. “Once we got to the fourth quarter, we knew we had to control the ball. We wanted to take a little bit more time with each possession. We were moving the ball a little quick there in the first three quarters.”

With the game deadlocked at seven entering the final frame, Hadlock and his Panthers teammates ground the game to a crawl with a patient offensive set.

“Ball movement was key, that’s something we focus on from day one,” NYA coach Chris Carpentier said. “They worked the ball around well and we got some nice layups down low.”

Hadlock benefited from the first so-called layup in the fourth, sneaking into the low slot from the side and whipping a feed from Isaac Lipton past St. Dom’s keeper Cody Rodrigue to put his squad on top by one. He added another 29 seconds later on a bounce shot from the right side that handcuffed Rodrigue, who finished with 19 saves on the afternoon.

“At that point, we just wanted to get some goals in the net really quickly and kill their momentum,” Hadlock said. “Their goalie made some great stops there in the beginning, and that had us rattled a little bit.”

Forest Millburn added another insurance marker with 3:38 remaining to cap the scoring.

But too many penalties, and too much time spent playing defense, hurt the Saints.

“It started getting worse, and as the footing got a bit slick and the sticks started getting wet, you could see that kind of thing start happening,” St. Dom’s coach Dave Haefele said. “What was the difference? Our man down. We had too many penalties.”

It was an early penalty to NYA that gave the Saints the upper hand early. Troy Haefele and Chris Finlay scored man-up goals in the opening 1:03, and Anthony Fagone added another to make it 3-0 Saints only 3:18 into the contest.

“I was very impressed with their team,” Carpentier said. “They held themselves together well, and (Rodrigue) made some great saves there.”

Hadlock potted his first of the contest late in the first quarter to get the Panthers on the board. T.J. Daigler and Hadlock added one each in the second to set things up at 3-3.

The Saints pulled back ahead by two, but again NYA cut the lead in half with a goal late in the first half. The Panthers scored three of the first four goals of the third quarter to take a 7-6 lead, and the Saints’ Matt Adams sent the game into the third intermission at 7-7 with a strike at the 1:28 mark of the third quarter.

“It was a fun game, very emotional,” Carpentier said. “The boys knew how to put it together toward the end. I think those three or four possessions we had were the icing on the cake for us. In close games, you have to slow things down.”