NORTH READING  — In a back-and-forth battle on the road, Lynnfield’s defense stepped up in the second half to earn a 13-10 win over North Reading at Arthur J. Kenney Field.

Trailing 8-6 at halftime, the No. 5 ranked Pioneers held the Hornets (5-6) to two second-half goals to secure the win and improve to 6-5.

Ava Damiani had a productive game with five  goals and one assist. Jordan Calichman had two goals and two assists. Hayden Valiton notched a hat trick and Liv Adams had two goals and one assist while teammate Marcella DiMaria also scored.

Addi Hajj led North Reading with four goals and an assist.

Lynnfield coach Christina Serra said she was pleased with her team’s defensive effort.

“We have some new players who are playing defense for the first time,” Serra said. “Bella has never played lacrosse until this year and is doing great. Nola (Maney) has been helping us and is doing a really good job defensively. Maeve Wertz is probably my best defender and she also played great. Those are my strongest defenders, and our goalie, Olivia Sylvester, made some good saves today.”

North Reading coach Matt Costello called Lynnfield a “dangerous” team.

“We have a lot of respect for Lynnfield. It’s a great program with an offense that’s very explosive,” Costello said. “I knew they were capable of making runs, so we expected it. They made a lot of plays today. They made more plays than we did at times. We know that even if you’re up, they are always capable of making a comeback like they did today.”

Lynnfield jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first quarter on two goals from Damiani and goals from Calichman and DiMaria.

North Reading responded in the second quarter, outscoring Lynnfield 7-2 to take an 8-6 lead into halftime.

Lynnfield flipped the script in the third quarter, outscoring North Reading 6-0 to take a 12-8 lead into the fourth. The Hornets closed to 12-10 with about five minutes remaining, but the Pioneers worked the clock down before Adams added an insurance goal with 21 seconds left to seal the win.

Lynnfield next plays Wednesday at Ipswich at 6:30 p.m. 

“They’re always very good,” Serra said. “We lost to them earlier this season, but it was back-and-forth until we just kind of lost our steam. I’m hoping our four freshmen have gotten more confident and I think they will help out a little more. I think if we play our game, we will be in it.”

North Reading’s next game is Wednesday at home against Essex Tech.

“They’re good,” Costello said. “Every team in the Cape Ann League is really, really good. We need to play with some grit and some passion and learn from our mistakes today. None of the games in our league are easy, so hopefully we’ll be ready.”