New Britain — There is enough pedigree and history around the boys’ soccer program at Stonington High to suggest that another championship run would be possible in 2024, despite its modest seeding (18th) in the Class M Tournament.

Among the reasons: Few, if any, other teams in Connecticut have been as resourceful and resilient, evidenced by two previous victories in the tournament via penalty kicks. Maybe the rest of the state had the chance to eliminate the Bears already and failed.

But then came Wednesday, when the other team had only yielded one goal through the tournament to date. And Tolland proved worthy of the top seed, blanking Stonington, 3-0.

Stonington — particularly Sal Alessio — had some chances to score, too. But the game belonged to Tolland’s Chris Adadjo, whose hat trick sent the Eagles to the finals.

“He’s a handful,” Stonington coach Mario Costa said. “We talked about communicating when he came into our area, but the three goals all came from mistakes we made. Kudos to Tolland, though. I thought we played a good second half, but you really can’t beat a team that good making the mistakes we made.”

Adadjo gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead at halftime and made it 2-0 early in the second half, carrying the ball about 40 yards and using his left foot to convert. He scored later on a penalty kick, putting in the rebound after Stonington goalkeeper Nick Cannella made a brilliant save.

And so the Bears end their season minus the drama they experienced earlier in the tournament.

“A lot of people thought we wouldn’t get here,” Costa said. “(Another state media outlet) thought we’d lose to (No. 2 seed) Seymour and we beat them. They fed into our underdog status and maybe even said we were lucky with PKs (in previous games). Well, PKs are not easy.”

Neither was the season, with a challenging ECC schedule and an emotional run in Class M.

“We had eight seniors here and the goal was to get back (to the finals),” Costa said. “It’s tough not to get there. But the 18 seed even getting here is an accomplishment in itself. We felt like we got everybody’s best shot all year.”

m.dimauro@theday.com