Stonington — Jeff Medeiros, whose Stonington High School girls' lacrosse team won the Class S state championship last season, didn't know the new version of his team very well going into Friday's game, nor did he know which players would step up.

"I still don't know who stepped up," Medeiros said after a 7-3 victory over Eastern Connecticut Conference Small Division foe Waterford.

It was a newcomer to the team, Daisy Humsey, who scored the first goal of the game nearly 14 minutes in for the Bears, shooting low to beat Waterford goalie Cat Ward. And it was sophomore Lauren Turner, who Medeiros calls "the new Megan" after former defensive stalwart Megan Roberts, who helped shut down the Lancers, as Stonington picked up its 20th straight regular-season victory dating back to the 2013 season.

"That was a really, really important goal," said Stonington senior attack Jenny Sieczkiewicz, the Bears' top returning scorer, speaking of Humsey. "If it wasn't for that, I don't think we'd be standing here right now. That gave us the momentum.

"We didn't go into it (against Waterford) thinking it was going to be easy, but that was really hard. They have a strong team this year."

The Bears led the game, played between two of the Small Division's favorites, just 3-2 at halftime, with Sieczkiewicz and Hannah Johnson adding goals. Leah Petrini and Kylie Sheehan scored for Waterford (1-1, 1-1) and Ward had an exceptional half in goal, thwarting three straight Stonington shots from point blank range.

In the second half, however, Sieczkiewicz and senior defender Margot Calmar, the Bears' two second team all-state picks from a year ago, fittingly competed as if they've played two sports together for the last four years (they have).

Just 13 seconds into the second half, Calmar drove the ball all the way down the field before hurling an off-balance pass to the left that was calmly collected by Sieczkiewicz and converted into a goal.

Following another goal by Waterford's Petrini, Calmar again charged down the field. After a foul, she found Sieczkiewicz once again and this time Sieczkiewicz ran the ball behind the goal before looking back and hitting the 6-foot-1 Calmar directly in front of the goal. Calmar scored to make it 5-3 with 19:01 remaining.

Margit Burgess scored for Stonington to make it 6-3 and Sieczkiewicz scored the final goal, her third of the game, with 7:08 to play. The Bears were able to kill the final seven minutes off the clock, maintaining possession a good part of the time, and holding Waterford without scoring for the final 24:09.

"Margot and I played even before high school," Sieczkiewicz said. "We're really confident in each other."

"I kind of would have liked to work some kinks out before we had to play them," Waterford coach Audrey Montanaro said. "I was so excited to see how we started this game. But they shut down our shooting. Our last game (11-4 win over St. Bernard), we had a lot of shots at the goalie. This time, they shut us down."

Stonington outshot Waterford 20-10, something Medeiros was happy to see after losing three of his five starting defenders from last year's near-perfect 21-1 season. He credited another newcomer to the team in all-state girls' soccer goalie Gabi Hoops for helping with the defense, as Hoops recorded several takeaways.

"That was the plan," Medeiros said of limiting Waterford's shots. "We practiced it yesterday: when the ball gets inside the 8, crash down. They did a good job of that. ... We're only two games in and they're doing stuff I didn't think they were ready to do yet.

"I don't know if it will ever look like (last year). But we still need to build confidence in certain girls. I'm real happy with how this game turned out."

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday