East Lyme — Stonington High School field hockey coach Jenna Tucchio scouted Haddam-Killingworth in H-K's Shoreline Conference tournament semifinal a few weeks ago, a 2-1 loss against Valley Regional.

“The team I scouted in the Shoreline tournament against Valley … this is not the team I saw,” Tucchio said Wednesday night. “They bring a different level of intensity to the tournament. They dial it up.”

Haddam-Killingworth in the state tournament? Priceless.

The third-seeded Cougars, who have gone back and forth with Stonington at the state level over the years, blanked No. 2 Stonington 3-0 in the semifinals of the Class S state tournament Wednesday on the artificial turf at East Lyme High School.

Stonington battered H-K with 11 penalty corners and 11 shots in the first half, but H-K scored on a counter-punch by Brinley Anderson 9 minutes, 36 seconds into the game, which gave the Cougars' the lead if not the momentum. H-K held on to the 1-0 edge at halftime.

H-K (16-3-1) goes on to face top-seeded Westbrook, a Shoreline rival, in the state championship game at 2 p.m. Saturday in Wethersfield.

It's the Cougars' second straight trip to the final, following a 2-1 loss to Thomaston in 2015.

Stonington finished the season 17-3-1, winning the Eastern Connecticut Conference regular season and tournament titles.

“We knew it was going to be an absolute battle,” said H-K coach Patsy Kamercia, in her 40th season. “We knew we were going to have to bring our A game. I was so happy with the way we played knowing how good Stonington is. I really felt it was going to be a one-goal game one way or the other.

“I'm in shock, they were pounding, pounding, pounding and our defense held up.”

H-K scored first when Bella Cosenza clobbered a ball headed for Stonington goalie Cam Dreher, who was lined up to make the save. At the last instant, however, Anderson came in and tipped the ball before it could get to Dreher, knocking it into the goal.

Stonington still registered corner after corner, two in the last two and a half minutes and one ending with a line drive by Emma Miller off the pads of H-K goalie Abbie Bagnoli. Still, the Bears trailed.

“We're pretty patient, so I didn't think they were frustrated,” Tucchio said of the first half. “Getting beat on that first goal, the momentum turned at that point. You could see (H-K's) intensity and focus and confidence rise.”

H-K added goals in the second half from Celia Payfa assisted by Anderson with 23:58 to play and from Julia Costek assisted by Cosenza with 6:56 to go. Bagnoli made nine saves to earn the shutout.

Stonington tacked on four more corners in the second half, but only managed one more shot after halftime.

Included in the teams' state tournament rivalry, H-K defeated Stonington for the 2012 Class S championship 2-0. Stonington won the state title in 2013, knocking H-K out in the quarterfinals 2-1 and the teams matched up again in the 2014 quarters with Stonington winning 4-1.

“We expected the intensity and the execution that they brought,” Tucchio said. “That's the hallmark of their team. There's never been a season where there was an H-K team that didn't play confident. … I thought they were beating us to the ball, just executing things faster. In a game like this, you have to match your opponents' speed and tempo and execution. They were tough.”

“Going into the season, we said 'oh no' because of key people we lost, but we do that every season,” Stonington's Dreher said. “We got to the semis … we did a lot of things. It's because everyone stepped up.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com