Stonington — Generally speaking, the accomplishment of defeating an unbeaten team on its home field the last night of the regular season is met with bells, whistles, trumpets and celebrations.

Then there was Thursday night, when the entirety of East Lyme’s traveling party, which hung the season’s first loss on Stonington, looked as though they’d just learned their team bus had a flat tire.

That’s because the Vikings, once owners of a 10-3 lead, had to sweat out a 12-9 win in what may have been a preview of next week’s Eastern Connecticut Conference girls’ lacrosse tournament championship game.

Both teams are 15-1.

“We’ve been in big games. This was a credit to Stonington,” East Lyme coach Phil Schneider said. “They are good with catching and throwing, solid defensively and patient on offense. We just needed a couple of opportunities to score.”

The Vikings had plenty of them in the first half, running to a 10-3 lead. But from there, Stonington scored five straight times, the final of which came with 14:31 remaining from Emma Logel, making it 10-8.

“For me, I take no one for granted. You never know,” Schneider said. “I hope our players learned something tonight. I’m not sure they came in with that mindset.”

Alanna Benoit scored a minute later giving the Vikes an 11-8 lead. From there, goalkeeper Giana Franco made two outstanding saves and the Vikings held on.

“I don’t think tonight was about sending any messages. We just wanted to show them who we are,” said East Lyme senior Izzy Pazzaglia, who led her team with four goals, the last of which gave her team a 12-9 lead. “We wanted to prove something. But we had to adjust a lot throughout the game.”

Dani Bruno, Lilly Poletto and Abby Belleville had two goals apiece for No. 9 East Lyme, whose only regular-season loss came at No. 7 Cheshire.

Logel led the Bears with three goals and Shay Burnside scored twice.

“If we play them again,” Pazzaglia said, “we need to move the ball better and take out time.”

m.dimauro@theday.com