Old Lyme — Old Lyme was leading gingerly at 2-1 when sophomore Maddie McCullough took the ball over in the corner to the left of the Old Saybrook goal.

"I think my goal was to get it somewhere near the 18 (yard-line)," McCullough said of where she was aiming.

The ball, however, took an Old Lyme High School bounce, rolling back toward the goal and in and breaking the game open in what would go on to be a 5-1 victory for the Wildcats over Old Saybrook in the quarterfinals of the Shoreline Conference girls' soccer tournament Wednesday afternoon.

Top-seeded Old Lyme (9-0-1) had five different goal scorers as it passed through to Friday's semifinal round to meet No. 4 Coginchaug at 2 p.m. at Old Lyme.

Old Saybrook scored first in the 14th minute to force the Wildcats to rally.

Old Lyme's Ali Kyle tipped in a shot to tie things at 1 when a shot by McCullough caromed off the Old Saybrook goalie and back to her feet with 5:51 remaining in the half and Emily DeRoehn blasted a direct kick for a 2-1 Old Lyme lead just a little more than two minutes later.

McCullough's goal opened the floodgates.

"I think it really boosted everyone's spirits," McCullough said. "We started playing our game better. That was the turning point. To have a goal from so far out, that was showing how versatile everyone on our team is.

"I think we went into this game very excited. We needed to play better (in the second half) and not be so crazy on the field. We had to reel it in."

Sophomore Alexis Fenton scored on a direct kick with 12:49 left and senior defender Lauren Wallace took a deep shot which rattled in with 3:11 remaining. Sophomore goalie Ryleigh Russell earned the victory, filling in for senior starter Sam Gray.

The game was played as the second half of a Shoreline doubleheader with the Old Lyme boys. The boys fell to Haddam-Killingworth 3-1 in the opener.

"I think when we saw they lost, we thought, 'We have to win now,'" McCullough said. "It made us more competitive. We wanted to win."

"We had a good talk at halftime," Old Lyme coach Paul Gleason said. "Saybrook played a very hard game in the first half. We must have put nine or 10 shots on goal (after that), maybe even more."

Old Lyme is coming off five straight Class S state championship berths, including four straight titles from 2015-18. The Wildcats won't get to extend that streak this year due to the cancellation of the state tournament because of COVID-19, but they do have the opportunity to win their first Shoreline tournament title since 2016.

That means this year's senior class can win the first Shoreline championship of their careers. That would mean a lot to Gleason, he said, referring to the seniors as both passionate players and compassionate people who bring the younger players on the journey along with them.

"I have enjoyed this senior class," he said. "They give me a ration of crap all the time. But they listen to me. They're all 'A' students. I'm going to have biologists, scientists and chemists coming out of this group.

"(At halftime), we said, 'You know you're not playing up to your caliber.' We had the speed on them. ... Primus inter pares. That's Latin for first among equals. I always tell them to be first among equals, first off of equal talent. I'm pretty proud of these kids this year."

v.fulkerson@theday.com