It was a tale of two halves.

The second half, which Central girls lacrosse coach Whitney Nelson said is more indicative of her team’s level of talent, saw the Little Green match undefeated Souhegan goal-for-goal for 20 of 25 minutes.

The first half, which Nelson said she’s rather forget, was quite the opposite. Goaltender Emily Goupil was peppered with a barrage of shots and the locals fell into a 12-3 hole.

Though Central lost the game on Tuesday, May 6, 20- 7, Nelson said she believes the contest is an aberration, rather than the norm for her 8-2 squad.

“(Souhegan) is a fast team. We’re in great shape, but they were just a step quicker than we were tonight,” said Nelson.

“Honestly, I think there was a little … well a lot of lack of communication with my defense,” she continued. “But they have been doing a great job all season, and I think the 8-2 record speaks for itself, so I think just reiterating those key points with them at halftime, they were at least able to step it up a little bit. And my offense was obviously able to turn it on as well.”

Nelson, in her first year at Central after two years at West, has already doubled the Little Green’s win total from a year ago.

“I think the heart and the desire of the girls and their natural talent has really shown this year,” she said. “Having some leadership on and off the field has helped us kind of put a lot of the pieces of the puzzle together.” Goupil, Chantale Lacroix, Ryann Gibbons and Katie Nichols lead the current squad.

Still, Nelson is the first to acknowledge her team is still young and said she hopes its best games are yet to come. The Little Green roster includes three seniors, three juniors and 11 underclassmen.

“Our goal that we talked about up to this point is to be top four this year, and I still think we can make it to the final four,” said Nelson. “We’re just going to continue to grow over the next couple of years, and I think you’re going to see us make a big impact on this division.”