EAST BRIDGEWATER — Despite all the success Scituate accumulated in the 20 years that Ross Maki has been at the helm, a state semifinal appearance always eluded the Sailors.

That was until Thursday night, though, as it took some magic in the form of a Cinderella run to get Scituate into uncharted territory.

The No. 17 Sailors continued on their upset path by knocking off ninth-seeded East Bridgewater with a hard-fought 1-0 road victory in a Division 3 quarterfinal. Scituate (12-6-3) advances to the state semifinal for the first time in program history where it will face No. 4 Greater New Bedford Voke.

“It’s incredible,” senior captain Alex Roche said. “Maki has put a lot of work into this program. We’ve had a lot of good teams over the years. I was kind of surprised when I heard we’ve never reached this pillar. So it really is incredible for us to be the team to finally do that.”

Scituate put pressure on EB (13-4-4) from the outset and took the lead thanks to a heady play from Roche.

Roche patiently stalled on the right wing so that attackers joined him in transition before unleashing a perfect cross into the box for Grady Fassenden to put home in the 34th minute.

“We’ve worked on it all season,” Roche said. “A lot of times, I’ll get the ball out wide, I’ll go on a run down the width, I’ll take on a few guys and then I’ll serve it in. He just did a great job finding the back post and getting there, which is something we’ve talked about in practice the last couple of weeks.”

The Sailors couldn’t extend their lead in the early portions of the second half, but their stout defense held the Vikings without a shot on net for the first 65 minutes.

But then EB came at Scituate with a flurry of offense over the final 15 minutes to try to net the equalizer. The Vikings put five shots on frame over that span, including a rocket from Kaden Amaral that Sailors goalie Andrew Borgman dove to stop.

“I think this is the sign that we got a true champion here,” Maki said. “Being able to withstand that, especially the last 15 minutes that East Bridgewater threw at us and they did a phenomenal job. These guys responded and very deserving of getting to where they are going now.”