Ledyard — East Lyme played like a team that hasn’t lost to an Eastern Connecticut Conference opponent all season and is a heavy favorite to capture yet another league tournament title.

Stonington also turned in a strong performance in its ECC semifinal win on Tuesday at Ledyard High School.

The two best teams during the regular season will play for the championship at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Waterford High School.

The finalists met just last week, with East Lyme posting a 12-9 win.

It may take a near perfect-game for the Bears (16-1) to knock off the top-seeded Vikings (16-1), who rolled past No. 6 Bacon Academy 17-3 in the semifinals. Stonington defeated No. 5 Waterford 15-8.

While East Lyme has some lofty goals for the upcoming state tournament, first it is focused on capturing another ECC championship trophy.

“It’s a new group of girls, a new year and a new opportunity,” East Lyme coach Phil Schneider said. “We want to be the best team in the ECC. This is how we do it, by winning the championship.”

East Lyme was at its best on Tuesday after Schneider’s halftime chat. The Vikings led 8-3 at the break.

They were sharp all-around, scoring nine goals and their defense, including goalie Gigi Franco (nine saves) keeping the Bobcats off the scoreboard.

“We played better in the second half,” Schneider said. “We had a little discussion at halftime where we could have played a little bit better than we did. So that was a positive. I knew that Bacon was going to be tough even though they have only 13 or 14 players.

“They’ve got good sticks, play good defense and they’re good with their transition. … We hadn’t played them, do I don’t know if our team was prepared for how well they could handle the pressure.”

Bacon Academy (13-5) came in riding a 10-game winning streak.

The score stood deadlocked at 2-2 after Marissa Nudd and Anna LeGault scored for the Bobcats.

It was all East Lyme after that.

Senior Dani Bruno fueled the attack, finishing with a team-best six goals and two assists, while senior Abbie Belleville chipped in four goals and senior Meg Nagle added two goals and an assist. Junior Lillian Poletto had a goal and two assists.

“East Lyme is a really good team,” Bacon Academy coach TJ Morelli-Wolfe said. “Obviously, not a lot of weaknesses, if any, on their team. They came out strong, hard and played very well.”

In the second semifinal, Stonington started strong, firing in five goals in the first five minutes against a team that it swept during the regular season by scores of 11-7 and 11-6.

But the Bears watched an 8-1 lead shrink to 8-5.

Coach Jeff Medeiros called a timeout after Waterford senior Marin Mahoney’s third goal cut the deficit to three.

The Bears regained control and sophomore Emma Logel scored her fourth goal with eight seconds left in the first half for a 9-5 lead.

“The timeout for us, we’ve got to stop the momentum,” Medeiros said. “Last time we played them, they got a big lead and came back. We know Waterford doesn’t give up. We came out hot and came out playing the way we wanted to and we were excited. Then we kind of leveled off.”

“But we straightened the ship and we got through it.”

Logel led the Bears with five goals and an assist while freshman Autumn Christian had three goals and an assist and sophomore Shay Burnside and senior Emma Spathakis each added three goals.

Mahoney had four goals and an assist for the Lancers (11-7) and junior Payton Smith finished with two goals.

The ECC final will be a rematch from last year when East Lyme defeated Stonington, 18-5.

“East Lyme is tough to beat but if you can stay close, you’ve got a chance,” Medeiros said. “That’s our goal is to stay close. I think we have the talent. We’re young. Part of that is good because they don’t know what to expect. But part of it is bad because they hesitate because they’ve got that freshman in them and they haven’t matured into veteran players.”

“It’s always an accomplishment to get there. I think we have a better chance this year than we’ve had in the past.”

g.keefe@theday.com