Portland — It was prior to the game Friday night, the Shoreline Conference tournament boys' soccer championship. Old Lyme coach Marc Vendetti walked past a group of his players warming up and lit into them, calling their pace “absolutely unacceptable.”

The boys picked up the tempo immediately.

And never stopped.

The second-seeded Wildcats beat No. 1 Morgan 4-0, dominating on the way to their first Shoreline title since 2009. Old Lyme, the only team to beat Morgan this season (outscoring the Huskies 6-0 in a pair of victories), led 3-0 at halftime.

“They didn't know what to do,” Old Lyme senior Cooper St. Germain said of Morgan's reaction to the tempo. “We perfected it. We made no mistakes.”

“Everything has to be at a certain level. It's all about preparation,” said Vendetti, who took his team to practice last week at Montville's Wide World of Indoor Sports, getting his team used to pressing the opposition at a quicker pace and in a more confined space than was normal for the Wildcats. “When it's time to go to work, it's time to go to work.”

Old Lyme (14-1-3) beat No. 3 Old Saybrook 2-0 in the tournament semifinals on Tuesday behind a pair of goals from Nate Peduzzi, playing at the same breakneck speed.

On Friday, Peduzzi had two more goals, one in each half, but it was St. Germain who struck first.

St. Germain, a midfielder, missed Tuesday's game with a concussion, but was cleared to play in the final. With 18 minutes, 57 seconds to go in the first half, St. Germain scored when a Morgan defender tried to head the ball clear but saw it bounce to the Old Lyme player on the left post. St. Germain put it in the right side of the net.

Peduzzi made it 2-0 at the 17:11 mark on a header off a cross from Danny Cole and Old Lyme went up 3-0 on an own goal by Morgan (15-2-1) with a second left in the first half. Peduzzi's second goal came with 9:05 remaining in the game on an assist by Graham Aird.

Old Lyme outshot Morgan 17-3, with all three Morgan shots coming in the first half. Cam Dean-Frazier made three saves for the shutout.

Old Lyme lost last year's final to Cromwell in overtime.

“I felt great, but we didn't win because I came back,” St. Germain said. “We won this because of the whole team. It was hard last year coming so close. This is a good feeling. … We have a high standard, but it pays off in the end.”

Vendetti said he was worried about Morgan's physical nature and about containing the Huskies' Juan Avila. He truly believed, however, if Old Lyme could top Old Saybrook — without St. Germain and with two other players just coming back from injury — and get to the final, it could claim the championship.

Morgan finished the Shoreline standings with 30 points to earn the No. 1 seed, while Old Lyme, with ties against Old Saybrook and East Hampton, had 29 points.

Vendetti praised his team for carrying out its mission heading into next week's Class S state tournament.

“We knew we need to play our tempo, stay composed with the ball and not squander any of those chances,” Vendetti said. “We did well with that. We made the commitment to defend at every position, from the players who play up top all the way back.

“… This group expected to be here. I knew if they could get here, they had as good a chance as anyone.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday