There’s no substitute for experience.

Romeo’s lacrosse team proved that Thursday night when it rallied for four goals in three minutes late in the fourth quarter to edge Dakota 7-6 in the Macomb Area Conference Red Division opener for each team.

The Bulldogs’ burst came shortly after the Cougars had scored three goals in 13 seconds to take a 6-3 lead.

“In past years with a young team it would have been pack your bags and go home, but this team is older and more experienced,” said Romeo coach Jack Smith. “It’s the most experience we’ve had so being able to respond positively in those moments shows the true testament of our character. We’re super excited about it.”

Junior attack Adam Poules got the winning goal with 1:16 left in the game. Poules assisted on the previous three Bulldogs goals.

Poules said that he and his teammates knew it was time for action after Dakota’s goal-scoring flurry.

“We knew we had to do something,” he said. “Our coaches told us they knew we could do it. We trusted them and we just did it.”

Connor Hevel started things off with a goal with 4:16 remaining. Landon Dolan’s second goal of the game cut the Dakota lead to 6-5 and Hevel’s third of the game tied it at 6-6 with 2:43 to go.

That set the stage for Poules.

“I saw my teammate Noah (Sarrach) coming down the field,” Poules said. “I went under and I was wide open. I faked low and went high.”

Romeo played solid defense throughout the game trying to force Dakota into turnovers with its pressure.

“We like to press the perimeter, kind of like the old school Bobby Knight defense,” Smith said. “We try to make people make poor decisions.”

The Bulldogs did it without one of its best defenders, Brody Giacona, who sustained a knee injury in the opener.

“My teammates had to step up and our defense was very good today,” Poules said.

It was a disappointing loss for Dakota, which had won its last two games after dropping the opener.

“We talked with Jack before the game about how every time we play it’s physical, it’s gritty, it’s like playing your brother,” said Cougars co-coach Mike Benavides. “We’re very similar teams. We see these guys in three weeks and I guarantee it’ll be another wire to wire game and both coaches will be a little hoarse afterward.”

Alex Karr opened the scoring for Dakota in the first quarter but Romeo answered with goals by Dolan and Hevel to lead 2-1 after one quarter. Jacob Bajis, who will play at Northwood next season, scored the only goal of the second quarter and snapped the 2-2 tie midway through the third quarter. Cormac Young responded for the Bulldogs with 4:04 left in the third quarter to send the teams into the fourth quarter tied 3-3.Jack Gordon broke the 3-3 tie with a goal with 8:18 left in the fourth quarter. Eight seconds later, Lucas Parks gave Dakota a two-goal lead and when Bajis scored his third goal of the game with 8:10 remaining, the Cougars were ahead 6-3.

“This is something we can learn from,” Benavides said. “This will galvanize us. I have three terrific senior captains in Jacob Bajis, Evan Adamski and Jacob Brender. I trust their leadership. They’ll get the rest of the team together and we’ll be better. We’ll look at our mistakes and try to figure out why they were made.”

Romeo is counting on its experience to improve on last year’s 7-9 overall record.

“It’s a veteran team,” Poules said. “Last year we were very young and didn’t get the results we wanted. A couple years ago our coach said this is the year that we can win something. Our team is incredible this year.”