AUBURN — At halftime, the St. Dom’s girls’ soccer team hit the reset button.

After a scoreless opening half with Hall-Dale Monday, the Saints had very little to show for their efforts. So during the intermission, their coach asked for a new start.

“The first 30 minutes of the game we didn’t show up to play,” said St. Dom’s coach Kathy Little. “It was ugly soccer. The last 10 minutes (of the first half) we started piecing some stuff together. At halftime, I told them ‘It’s a brand new game. We’ve got to come out and play 40 minutes of soccer and get this game done. ‘ I told them that we were fortunate we weren’t down a couple of goals on them capitalizing on our mistakes.”

The Saints produced a revitilized second half and got goals from Marley Byrne and Kirsten Conner in a 2-0 win over the Bulldogs.

“We started connecting passes a lot better,” said Byrne. “We were more positive on the field and had a lot better communication.”

St. Dom’s (4-2) outshot Hall-Dale 10-1 in the second half. The Saints moved the ball effectively and produced a variety of quality shots.

“We stepped it up and got contributions from a variety of players,” said Little.

Byrne’s goal came just 7:47 into the second half. The sophomore midfielder had the best shots of the first half for the Saints and put another quality shot toward the net from the top of the box. Hall-Dale keeper Olivia Maynard reached up to grab it but had it slip off her hands and into the net.

“I just saw that I had time and space and I took the shot,” said Byrne. “Luckily it went in through the goalie’s hands. I knew it was a good shot, but I didn’t know it was going in until it did.”

The Saints got a quality bids from Sarah Trott, Dayle Jordan and Courtney Costello as St. Dom’s did a better job moving the ball and connecting passes.

“We had to stay positive and needed to put our game together and step it up and they did,” said Little, whose team has had a hectic schedule with three games last week, including a game Saturday and a benefit 5K and alumni games on Sunday.

The second goal came with 14:57 left. The Saints produced some good pressure and had a few volleys go back-and-forth in front of the net. A Faith Grady cross got the ball to Conner on the right side. The freshman midfielder chipped it up into an open net.

“Once we picked it up and everybody started communicating and were positive, people were more confident on the ball and took the shots and made the runs,” said Byrne.

The Saints defense did a superb job limiting Hall-Dale’s chances. The Bulldogs (3-3) had a break from Carylanne Wolfington late in the first half that went wide. Kristina Buck had a try but didn’t get all of it moments later. Hall-Dale’s best chance in the second half was a shot by Buck with 1:44 left.

“We pretty much shut down (Wolfington and Buck),” said Little. “We knew going in that they were their go-to players.”

Neither team mustered much offense in the first half. Then with 10 minutes left, the Saints started to move the ball more effectively.  Byrne had a pair of nice shots from in front that were saved. Jordan had a cross toward the right post but nobody could redirect toward the open net.

“It was really noticeable that once we clicked, it was on and it stayed on the rest of the game,” said Byrne.

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