Old Lyme — Sometimes, when Old Lyme High School's Will Ferguson is really fired up, his shots can sail more toward the middle school in the distance instead of going where they're intended: on goal.

On Saturday, Ferguson didn't have any such problem.

Old Lyme's center defensive midfielder, Ferguson scored three times to help lift the third-seeded Wildcats to a 6-1 victory over No. 6 Canton in the quarterfinals of the Class S boys' soccer state tournament.

Old Lyme will play No. 2 Coventry in the semifinals on Tuesday at Montville at 6:30 p.m. Coventry defeated No. 10 Oxford, also by a 6-1 margin.

“Ecstatic,” Ferguson said, asked after the game how he was feeling. “I'm so pumped. I'm a senior. I'm a captain. I've been working four years to do this. It's insane.

“… Sophomore year we played in the semifinals at Guilford (a 1-0 loss to eventual champion Cromwell). I was in 10th grade. There was I don't know how many people there. I was blown away to be in a semifinal match. Now to be a senior and have it in my hands … I feel so much relief off of me.”

Ferguson scored just four minutes into the game, tapping a ball to the right corner of the net that hit the post and bounced in, setting off a celebration among the Wildcats (17-1-3) which included goalie Cam Dean-Frazier coming out of the net to midfield to join in.

Ferguson had just the right touch again with 1 minute, 43 seconds left in the half, making it 2-0 on a rebound that popped back out to him.

“I know that in order to score, you have to be calm,” Ferguson said.

It was the 12th straight win for Old Lyme, the Shoreline Conference tournament champion, which outshot Canton 33-4. Coach Marc Vendetti joined the postgame celebration by leaping high into his huddle of players.

Vendetti said his team seems to be playing even calmer as the tournament wears on.

“We're becoming more and more settled,” he said. “Today was a little more measured. I thought that with us in possession (against Canton), we'd be able to touch the ball around, turn players, stretch defenses. … They didn't have much of the ball at all.”

Old Lyme won its first-round tournament game against Portland 2-1 Tuesday and topped Cromwell 3-1 Thursday.

Ferguson said it was during halftime of the Cromwell game when he was “getting reamed out,” that assistant coach Steve Hallahan took him aside.

“He said 'We've been together a long time,'” said Ferguson, who has been coached by Hallahan all the way back to youth soccer. “'And this isn't the end.' … I just want to say that I owe everything I did today, every goal, to my coaching staff.”

Nate Peduzzi scored twice in the second half, the first on a cross from Graham Aird that made it 3-0 with 29:28 to play. Old Lyme then poured it on. Ferguson scored on a penalty kick smash when teammate Danny Reid was taken down in the penalty area, Peduzzi scored on a tip-in off the right post that was initially crossed by Reid and Jacob Olson capped the Wildcats' scoring with 14:41 to play.

Colin Madigan scored for Canton with 7:09 left.

Vendetti called Ferguson's effort “fantastic.”

“Not just scoring goals, but controlling the tempo in the midfield,” Vendetti said. “We got after him the other day. We gave him a job and he wasn't as focused as he previously is. We said, 'We're in a state tournament game, in case you didn't notice.'”

“We knew we had to play. We are playing really well together,” Ferguson said of the latest win. “Our team chemistry is unbelievable. We want to build off this. It feels so good. We're feeling it.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday