Waterford — It was a give-and-go between East Lyme's James Foster and Nick Ghirardi, simple in theory.

Yet in order for Ghirardi, having received the ball from Foster, to give it back to his fellow senior, he had to thread it between a pair of defenders and hit Foster in full stride. Foster collected it, dribbled in and just kissed the ball from left to right across the goal to beat Waterford goalie Austin Schwartz.

The goal, straight out of a video game, made the score 3-0 on the way to a 4-1 victory for the East Lyme High School boys' soccer team Saturday night, topping Waterford for the ALS Cup and making it a doubleheader sweep for the Vikings' boys' and girls' teams.

"It was unbelievable," East Lyme coach Paul Christensen said of the exchange between the two high-caliber forwards. "Even the referee was clapping. One of the best plays by a high school soccer team anywhere in the country. ... You should see the stuff they do in practice, too."

"When we all step on the field, we become a family. All these boys are my second family," Ghirardi said. "That's the way we played tonight and I hope we always play like that. That goal between us just happened. There was no thought process. That was one of the best goals we scored ever, just a great play."

Ghirardi finished with two goals and an assist and Foster had a goal and two assists, later adding a behind-the-back pass to Alex Moore for the Vikings' final goal as East Lyme (2-1) broke open what was previously a tight game.

East Lyme, which lost 3-1 to Bacon Academy on Thursday in its last outing, led just 1-0 at halftime against Waterford on Ghirardi's first goal about 10 minutes in.

It was still 1-0 more than 15 minutes into the second half when Ghirardi made it 2-0, assisted by Foster. The give-and-go came fewer than two minutes later to push the lead to 3-0.

Waterford's Dan Castelpoggi scored on a right-side corner kick from Brent Rutchick with 5:54 to play, shortly after the Lancers' missed a scoring opportunity on an open East Lyme net, and continued to pressure the Vikings, combined with a diving save by Waterford's Schwartz.

Foster's back heel to Moore, which Moore converted with 1:45 remaining, made it 4-1 and ended Waterford's hopes of a comeback.

East Lyme goalie Mike Trailor made nine saves for East Lyme and Schwartz had four for Waterford (2-2).

"It was just unfortunate. They had some opportunities and they finished," Waterford coach Joe Mendonca Jr. said. "We had our moments of playing some good soccer, but we were not able to finish. They're a good side. That's what it's all about, playing good competition so you see what we need to work on. I don't think we played our best tonight."

While Waterford starts only two seniors, East Lyme is also replacing nine starters, everyone but Ghirardi and Foster. Foster was an All-New England selection last year, while he and Ghirardi were both members of the All-ECC Large Division team and The Day's All-Area team.

"That's what we're hoping," Christensen said of Ghirardi alluding to the two star forwards as brothers. "They came up the ranks together in summer leagues, premier programs. That (talent) is just them working hard for years and years and years. They've got to carry the team."

Christensen said the Vikings are "a work in progress." They played Saturday without sweeper Ryan deLaforcade, who received 17 stitches in his head, the coach said, from a collision during the Bacon Academy loss.

"We became a little bit uncomposed," Christensen said of the end of the Bacon game, which was tied 1-1 until Bacon's winning goal came with three and a half minutes to play. "The guys were trying to get (a goal) in before overtime. I would have been happy with the tie. We played well against them."

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday