The Ledyard High School girls' soccer team has been creeping toward greatness since the arrival of coach Jen Sullivan in the fall of 2013 — Sullivan, who coaches on every play, directing, pleading, putting the pieces in place.

"That way the players know I'm right there with them," Sullivan said.

Stonington, meanwhile, reached Wednesday's Eastern Connecticut Conference championship game by dethroning the league's Goliath, East Lyme, in Monday's ECC semifinals and doing so through a series of changes the Bears made since being dispatched 6-1 by East Lyme in early October.

No. 3 Ledyard (13-4-1) and No. 4 Stonington (14-4) will meet in the title game beginning at 4:30 p.m. at East Lyme High School, followed by the boys' final featuring No. 1 Bacon Academy and No. 10 Woodstock Academy (7 p.m.)

Stonington has won six straight games, including victories over Old Lyme and Waterford, both ranked in the top 10 of the Class M/S state poll, and East Lyme, ranked eighth in Class LL/L.

"We were going to change our whole formation, but we decided not to do that and just moved a couple kids," Walsh said after Monday's 3-1 victory over East Lyme. "We moved Gabby (Soscia) out of the back to the middle and put Halle (Anderson) in the front. We moved Taylor (Hertlein) from mid to left back.

"We knew we needed to score some goals. We've been playing like (we did Monday), ever since we knew we could score goals."

Ledyard and Stonington are both making their first appearance in the ECC final. And Ledyard, by the way, is coached by a Stonington grad in Sullivan, who played for Walsh and is also a guidance counselor at Stonington High.

Sullivan's team went 9-6-2 in her first season, making an appearance in the Class L state tournament, then last year reached the ECC tournament as the No. 8 seed before falling to East Lyme. Ledyard reached the second round of Class L, finishing 11-7-1.

The Colonels kept improving throughout this season, too, losing to Waterford 2-0 in the first game of the season before beating the Lancers 2-1 Monday in the semifinals.

Emily Kowalski scored the game-winning goal for Ledyard with 10 minutes, 29 seconds to play.

"My coach, she knows what she's doing," Kowalski said. "She helps us get the kinks out and we're able to get that done."

Stonington excelled partially Monday because of first-time goalie Taty LaFrance Boyce, who made 16 saves and drew the compliments of East Lyme coach Rachel Redding, who said she always cheers inside for opposing goalkeepers.

"I felt like there was another goalie in there (besides her)," Redding said with a laugh. "She played out of her mind. It was fun to watch."

East Lyme had only given up four goals all season prior to the game, outscoring opponents 88-4.

"We knew East Lyme was everyone's favorite," LaFrance Boyce said. "We knew that (East Lyme bombarding the goal with shots in the second half) was going to happen. We knew we were going to have to play two times harder.

"We put everything we have into every game."

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday