Hartford — Sal Fiorillo had told folks that his East Lyme girls' basketball team would be playing wrecking ball Capital Prep in Thursday's CIAC Class L second round.

"People were giving me the wide-eyed look like, 'you really want to play them?,'" Fiorillo said, widening his own eyes and leaning back for effect.

"Yeah, we really want to play them. This is where we want to get as a program."

The outcome was what even the most unreasonable person would expect as the four-time state champion Trailblazers beat East Lyme 60-38.

And the effusive Fiorillo was beaming afterwards.

"I'm just really proud of these kids," the first-year coach said. "These kids competed tonight. I know the score doesn't indicate that, but if one watched this game, we had it down to 14 (in the third quarter)."

It was a yet another learning experience for the 13th-seeded Vikings, who finish 12-11. Twelve of their 17 players are freshmen. They graduate just three seniors with Ali Christensen being the only one who started against Prep.

East Lyme didn't so much have a trial by fire this season as it was chucked into a volcano. It played New London, Norwich Free Academy and Waterford twice within the Eastern Connecticut Conference.

The Vikings also scheduled Notre Dame of Fairfield twice in non-conference games. The Lancers are seeded third in Class M and were last season's runner-up. East Lyme also played Kolbe Cathedral, which won Thursday to advance to the Class S quarterfinals.

Last and certainly not least, there's fourth-seeded Prep (19-5), winners of 89 straight in-state games.

The Trailblazers haven't lost to a Connecticut team since St. Patrick's Day 2012 when Coginchaug beat Prep 58-48 in the Class S final.

Prep has spent the last five seasons augmenting its schedule with out-of-state games against national powers like South Medford (Oregon) and New York City's Christ the King (that would be where Sue Bird and Tina Charles played).

"That's an exceptional basketball team that's very deep," Fiorillo said about Prep.

It's exactly the kind of competition Fiorillo craves for his team.

"We're not scared," he said. "That's how a program gets better — by playing the NFAs and New Londons."

Sophomore starting guard Megan Bauman said, "We need to play the best in order to get better."

Pittsburgh-bound senior Angelique Rodriguez scored 21 points for Prep while classmate Lizahya Morgan added 16 points and five steals.

Bauman scored 13 points and freshman Nadia Tarhini had 11 points and six blocks for the Vikings.

The game went badly for East Lyme early. It missed all eight of its field goal attempts in the first quarter. Tarhini scored their first field goal with four minutes, 22 seconds left in the first half.

The Trailblazers also forced 12 first-half turnovers as they swarmed on defense like wolves to an uncooked steak.

"It was definitely more pressure than I've faced before," Bauman said. "They were all over me tonight, and it's good. It's just going to get everybody better on our team because we need to face that."

East Lyme trailed 29-9 at halftime when it began to get its footing. It went on a late 9-4 late in the third.

Sophomore Katie Durkee made a 3-pointer, followed by back-to-back layups by Tarhini and freshman Sophie Dubreuil. Bauman's pull-up jumper cut the Vikings' deficit to 39-25 with less than a minute left in the period.

The Vikings outscored the Prep in the third, 16-12.

"It's a wonderful night for East Lyme girls' basketball because we're going in the right direction," Fiorillo said.

"We lose three seniors (Gabrielle Murphy, Annie Walker and Christensen). They were wonderful kids and they really helped me build this program. But we're going to retool next year. We'll be okay. We're really going to be okay.

"I can't wait."

n.griffen@theday.com