Old Lyme — A bullseye is firmly planted on the back of each Old Lyme jersey, and quite frankly, senior Maddie Ouellette wouldn't have it any other way.

"Honestly, we bring that to motivate us," Ouellette said. "In our huddle before every game we say, 'They want to kill us.' Every team wants to beat us because of the title we hold. It makes us play harder, stronger and better."

It sure did Saturday.

Facing Coventry in the quarterfinals of the CIAC Class S girls' soccer tournament for the third straight season, the top-seeded Wildcats scored two goals before the game was even four minutes old. They didn't score again, but clearly controlled play and defeated the No. 9 Patriots 2-1.

Old Lyme (19-1), which won the 2016 title and shared the 2015 championship with Notre Dame of Fairfield, will play No. 4 St. Paul, a 2-1 overtime winner over No. 12 East Granby, in the semifinals on Tuesday night at 6:30 at Falcon Field in Meriden.

"We were really excited for this game because we've played them the last two years and have been successful," Ouellette said. "We didn't want this to be a third time's the charm thing and they win, so we wanted to go out really strong and hard.

"We were really pumped up, and then we put in those two goals away and wanted to keep them from scoring ... We had plenty of more chances, but just weren't able to put them in the back of the net."

Old Lyme sure did early, and it was Ouellette who got the party started just 1 minute, 55 seconds into the match. She settled a cross from Danielle McCarthy just outside the penalty area, patiently turned and blasted a shot into the upper right corner past a defenseless Coventry goalie Grace Galey.

The Wildcats doubled their lead only 93 seconds later when leading scorer Mya Johnson created space between a pair of defenders, turned, and drilled a shot over Galey from 20 yards out. It was Johnson's 31st goal of the season.

Coventry, to its credit, adjusted and frustrated Old Lyme the rest of the day. The Patriots were also rewarded with a goal on their only shot of the first half (15th minute) when Alex Stinson scored on a breakaway. Stinson beating a defender to a the long ball played out of the back, dribbled around Old Lyme's charging goalie Emily Rivera, and easily deposited a ground ball into an empty net.

"We couldn't put them away," Old Lyme coach Paul Gleason said. "(Coventry) made an adjustment, and when you have 6 or 7 (players) in the box defending, it's kind of tough to open up, but I think we were on their side of the field most of the game."

Ironically, Coventry's first shot of the second half was saved off the line by Old Lyme's best offensive player — Johnson. Awarded a direct kick from the right side of the penalty area with 10 minutes remaining, Sarah Sullivan's shot sailed over the head of Rivera and was headed for the opposite post when Johnson leaped and headed the ball away.

Less than a minute later, Johnson was denied her second goal when her shot rattled of the crossbar, but Coventry never seriously challenged for the equalizer again.

"She has done some things this year that I rarely see at this level," Gleason said. "Remember when (UConn women's basketball coach) Geno Auriemma had Diana Taurasi playing for him? He was asked once why they won and said, 'because we have Diana and they don't.'

"Mya's at that same level. We have her and no one else does. She plays offense. She plays defense. There's no one else like her."

c.banning@theday.com