East Lyme — Peter Sherman was asked his height.

“Six-three?” Old Lyme High School coach Marc Vendetti said, smiling in the direction of Sherman.

“Minus a foot,” Sherman said with a laugh.

That was of little concern Saturday night as Sherman, an Old Lyme junior who transferred this year from Nazareth, Pa., scored with 4 minutes, 27 seconds remaining in the Wildcats' season-opener against rival East Lyme to forge a 1-1 tie.

Sherman scored off a cross from Ethan Harris, a sequence that Vendetti would later praise as the team's best ball movement of the evening for a young team which graduated 27 goals and the middle of its lineup from back to front.

“We have a new goalie, new across the park,” Vendetti said. “We're not polished. Oh, my gosh. … We were in the 76th minute. But something about the way that second half was going for us; we didn't create a lot of chances, but we felt if we kept going the way we were going, something good would happen.

“That sequence of ball movement was what we're training for.”

East Lyme scored to make it 1-0 with 20:04 left in the first half on a direct kick by senior captain Conrad French.

East Lyme, which reached the championship game of the Eastern Connecticut Conference tournament last year, also has a young team, returning just three starters. The Vikings had difficulty scoring in the preseason, coach Paul Christensen said, including scoreless ties in scrimmages with Waterford and RHAM.

“We scored on a 35-yard direct kick and that's not going to happen on an everyday basis,” Christensen said. “We played a great game, I thought. We had opportunities scoring. We just didn't finish.”

Christensen said, though, that while last year's team took time to jell, he believes this one will come together quicker.

“This team has better skills overall,” Christensen said. “… I'm certainly pleased with the effort, with the way they battled. Old Lyme-East Lyme is always a tie or a one-goal game. Even my best teams only beat Old Lyme 2-1.”

Sherman was embraced by Vendetti following the game and teased by his teammates, who informed him that because of his height, a cameraman videoing the game might have needed to lower the camera. Vendetti called Sherman's transition seamless.

“I love all the guys on the team,” Sherman said. “… I got a great ball in from Ethan Harris. All I had to do was get a foot on it.”

“I was generally really happy with how the squad played,” Vendetti said. “We weren't on frame an awful lot. We were able to level the game and get a point.”

v.fulkerson@theday