AUBURN — Matt Hawkins wasn’t the go-to player for North Yarmouth Academy for most of Saturday afternoon’s tilt against St. Dom’s in the teams’ Eastern Class B boys’ lacrosse semifinal.

Nor has he been most of the season.

“We’ve been waiting for Matt to shoot hard from the outside,” NYA coach Peter Gerrity said.

The wait is over.

Hawkins’ goal with 4:12 to play in regulation was worth the wait, proving to be the difference-maker in a tightly-contested 7-6 NYA victory.

“I could tell, the kid that had been playing me the first three quarters, he was watching the ball when it went behind the net,” Hawkins said. “When I saw the ball move back, I realized I had my chance to cut. I knew the ball was coming to me, I knew the goalie was a lefty, so I knew I had to go off-stick, which is usually near side for me, but it was opposite this time. I just put it where I thought it would go in.”

The goal stopped St. Dom’s from adding a third unanswered goal as it tried to rally from three down in the fourth quarter.

“We knew we could come back, we had a chance to win this game,” St. Dom’s coach Dave Haefele said. “We’ve been here before, and they acted like it. We did the right thing today, we just couldn’t finish, and their goalie made some great saves.”

“Their team is so much better than last year,” Gerrity said. “That was a hell of a game. That was fun.”

Trailing 6-3, Grant Carrier finished a feed from Troy Haefele at the left post as Haefele drew a double team on the right side. Anthony Fagone added another to pull the top-seeded Saints (13-1) within a goal with 5:20 to play.

“I really didn’t want (my goal) to be the winning goal,” Hawkins said. “I was hoping it would give our team momentum to get more, but they just kept coming back.”

Even after Hawkins’ strike, the Saints had their chances. They buried one of them with 3:20 to play as Haefele ripped one by NYA keeper Weston Nolan on a feed from Fagone, again drawing within a single tally.

It was one of the few shots Nolan saw that he trouble with all day.

“He made some unbelievable saves that kept them … it kept us from going ahead at big points in the game,” Dave Haefele said.

After pressuring the Panthers (8-6) into a turnover in the St. Dom’s end, the Saints turned it right back over on a botched substitution that left them a man down on an offsides call.

“The kids were so excited with the transition, and the kid that went offsides, he’s a long-stick midde,” Haefele said. “Usually he is going down like that. But those things happen.”

Despite the blunder, they battled back again and had an offensive possession in the NYA zone with time winding down, but the Panthers’ defense held strong, forcing St. Dom’s into a desperation heave at the net on a restart with less than one full second on the clock.

“It was certainly possible,” Dave Haefele said. “We tried to lob it in there and look for a deflection.”

Jacob Scammon put the Panthers on top 1-0 early on a rocket from 20 yards. Troy Haefle tied the game 3:33 later on a cut to the middle on a feed from Nick Hatfield, and the Saints took a lead on a Fagone strike with 2:04 to play in the opening quarter.

NYA’s lethal combination of Forrest Milburn and Oliver Silverson went to work in the second. Milburn ripped a pair of unassisted tallies past St. Dom’s keeper Cody Rodrigue five minutes apart in the second to put NYA back on top, and Silverson tacked on another in the final minute of the half for the first two-goal lead for either side.

T.J. Daigler got into the action early in the third, converting a feed from Milburn for a three-goal advantage. Carrier and Daigler then traded goals as NYA went into the fourth on top by three.