Stratford — East Lyme paid no mind to the fact that what it was accomplishing was barely even conceivable, reaching the championship game without ever allowing a goal in the CIAC Class L girls' soccer tournament.

But that's exactly what the 13th-seeded Vikings achieved Tuesday night with a 1-0 triumph over No. 8 Sheehan in the semifinals, clinching East Lyme's first championship appearance since 1998.

Sheehan outshot the Vikings 17-3 and had 10 corner kicks, what East Lyme coach Rachel Redding would say later seemed like "about 500 corner kicks."

And yet the defense held once more.

"It's something, right?" Redding said of the string of four straight tournament shutouts. "It's impressive. It's wild. It's hard work. I would say a lot of it is they trust each other, believe in each other, work hard for each other."

"It's definitely not easy," East Lyme senior sweeper Angie Venditti said. "I'm good at predicting what the other girl's going to do. My favorite thing in soccer is chasing people down the sideline."

East Lyme (12-4-5) advanced to Saturday's championship game, where it will meet No. 6 Guilford (10-3-4) — a winner over No. 2 Suffield on penalty kicks — at a site and time to be announced

All eight boys' and girls' soccer championship games will be held Saturday at either Hartford's Dillon Stadium or New Britain's Willow Brook Park.

A brief recap of the exploits of the East Lyme defense, which hasn't allowed a goal since Nov. 5:

The Vikings have given up just 16 goals in 21 games, with 10 shutouts to their credit overall and eight shutouts in the last 11 games. East Lyme has given up one goal or fewer 19 times.

That includes Class L state tournament victories over No. 20 Maloney (3-0), No. 4 Ledyard (1-0), No. 5 Mercy (0-0 tie, 3-2 in penalty kicks) and Sheehan.

The back line, protecting senior goalie Avery Owen, consists of Venditti at sweeper, Ella Mazzulli at stopper, Grace Wargo at left back and Emma Belleville at right back.

"They wanted it more. That's what it comes down to," Sheehan coach Rob Huelsman said. "When it comes down to scoring goals, they scored and we didn't. We all knew how it was going to be today. I didn't want the game to end 0-0 or 1-1 and go to penalty kicks. For a quality team to go to the finals, you want to score a goal."

The game remained 0-0 at halftime, despite the best efforts of Sheehan's Olivia Dubuc to punch a line drive past Owen. Sheehan, which beat top-seeded RHAM 1-0 in the quarterfinals on a goal by Dubuc, had 11 shots in the first half to one for East Lyme.

But East Lyme's next shot was all it needed.

With about 23 minutes remaining, sophomore Margaret Dunne was tripped in the midfield on a counter-attack, giving Venditti a free kick. Venditti knocked the ball in front of the goal where Dunne was able to tap it out of the reach of Sheehan goalie Beth Arnold to Alivia Catanzaro, who got behind Arnold for the goal.

Redding moved Catanzaro from the midfield to left wing at halftime.

"We have the ability to all rely on each other," said Owen, who has shined throughout the tournament, including a timely effort in the penalty kick round of Saturday's quarterfinal win. "I always know my girls are going to back me up. I knew they wouldn't let the ball past."

East Lyme completes a turnaround from a 4-12-1 season a year ago in which it struggled with several injuries and a difficult schedule. The Vikings did not qualify for the 2018 state tournament.

"I will tell you this," Redding said of the team's metamorphosis. "I've always believed in these girls, even last year. We worked hard yesterday. We work hard every day tweaking the things we need to tweak."

v.fulkerson@theday.com