There’s no question that it’s been an up and down season for the Cranston West girls’ lacrosse team, but on Thursday, it was able to overcome some adversity.

Trailing, 5-4, to rival Cranston East at halftime, the Falcons netted seven goals in the final 25 minutes behind three goals apiece from Tarah Okolowitcz and Grace Ohsberg to defeat the ’Bolts, 11-9.

West was in desperate need of a win, dropping four of its last five games.

And after a slow start in the first half, the last 25 minutes of play was much improved for the Falcons.

“We took care of the ball and we weren’t sloppy,” West head coach Mike Soscia said. “We cleaned up our act in the second half. Tarah (Okolowitcz) did a good job of running the offense and Yvette (Goudiaby), who’s only been playing goal for four games now, did a good job of protecting the net for us.”

In the first half, it was a completely different story.

While the Falcons were having trouble running their offensive sets, the ’Bolts were capitalizing on theirs.

Okolowitcz netted the game’s first goal just under 10 minutes into the first half, but East’s Ellen Macaruso recorded the equalizer less than two minutes later.

And after West’s Danae Carbone scored to make it 2-1, East rattled off three consecutive goals – two by Stephanie Groccia and one from Marissa Nelson – to give the ’Bolts a 4-2 lead.

With their backs against the wall, the Falcons battled back to tie it, 4-4, on goals from Okolowitcz and Ohsberg.

However, momentum shifted quickly in the final seconds of the half, when East captain Sara Olson snuck a shot by Goudiaby to give the ’Bolts a 5-4 lead at the break.

But things changed coming out of the half.

“We tweaked a few things at the half and settled things down a bit,” Soscia said. “Our defense did a good job of slowing their offense down in the second half. We did a great job with ground balls and unforced errors.”

Goals from Jolie Rouleau, Ohsberg and Okolowitcz in the first seven minutes of the second frame rapidly shifted the momentum back to the Falcons, who never relinquished the lead again.

East fought back with four goals the rest of the way, cutting its deficit to one with each tally, but West had a response for every East goal.

After those first three goals at the commencement of the second half, Okolowitcz and Ohsberg each netted a pair down the stretch to maintain the lead.

Jessica Wong scored twice in the second half for the ’Bolts, while Groccia and Salma Flores each scored once.

Wong scored with 4:50 remaining to make it 10-9, but Ohsberg added some insurance with 2:16 left to clinch the game for the Falcons, who possessed the ball in the final minutes to drain out the clock.

For East head coach Howard Chun, it was an encouraging loss for his squad.

“We’re happy that we played consistently the whole game,” Chun said. “We usually have a lot more ups and downs, so it was nice to see us continue to keep coming back. We just couldn’t quite get over the hump in the second half, but we were close.”

East now sits at 3-8 in the standings after a loss on Saturday to Smithfield, while West dropped to 4-6 with a 15-5 loss at Mt. Hope on Monday.

West will host Lincoln at 3:30 p.m. today at Cranston Stadium.

East and West will meet again on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Cranston Stadium.

Even though the Falcons are 4-6, they are still in second place in Division-II-North behind 8-1 Mt. Hope.

Soscia is hoping that the comeback win against East will instill some confidence in his team as they head down the stretch.

“It’s good that they’re on the right track and didn’t get down on themselves,” Soscia said. “It was good to see.”