South Portland scores early, holds off Portland, 1-0

PORTLAND—After being held scoreless in consecutive games, South Portland’s boys’ soccer team wasn’t just looking for a goal when it traveled to Fitzpatrick Stadium to face Portland Saturday morning.

The Red Riots were also seeking a victory.

Mission accomplished.

On both counts.

South Portland came out strong and in the 11th minute was rewarded, as senior standout Joey Perron finished.

That would be it for the Red Riots’ offense, but that goal would be enough thanks to a stellar defensive effort and while the Bulldogs had some great looks in the second half, they couldn’t produce the equalizer and South Portland held on for a 1-0 victory.

The Red Riots won at Fitzpatrick Stadium for the first time in four years, improved to 4-2-1 and in the process, dropped Portland to 4-4.

“It’s good to get back in the win column,” said South Portland coach Bryan Hoy. “We were down after our last couple games. We have a tough slate coming up. We have to make sure we’re heading in the right direction. It’s fun the way the league is this year.”

Another nailbiter

With so many good teams in Class A South this fall, it’s no surprise there have been a lot of closely contested games and both Portland and South Portland have had their share so far.

The Bulldogs got off to an auspicious start with a 1-0 home win over Gorham, then lost at home to Cheverus (2-1) and at Windham (2-0). Portland turned things around with a 4-1 home victory over Biddeford, then downed host Thornton Academy (3-0) and visiting Westbrook (7-0) before Wednesday’s tough 2-1 overtime loss at Scarborough.

The Red Riots started with a 2-0 victory at Cheverus. After a 3-0 home loss to Windham, the Red Riots defeated host Thornton Academy (4-0) and visiting Sanford (6-1) before falling at Scarborough, 1-0, and settling for a scoreless home tie versus Noble.

The teams met three times in 2020, with Portland prevailing, 2-0 in South Portland and 3-0 and 3-1 at home.

Entering play Saturday, dating back to 2001, Portland held a 16-6 edge, with one tie (see below, for recent results).

After the contest was postponed from Friday due to bad weather, the teams got up early and on a 66-degree morning, under mostly sunny skies, produced a close, compelling contest.

The Red Riots carried play early, earned a couple corner kicks and had senior Nzuzi Mvula miss just wide.

Then, with 29:05 to go in the first half, a familiar tandem put South Portland on top.

The play started with junior striker Divin Mpinga playing a ball ahead to Perron on the left sideline. Perron, who usually assists on Mpinga’s goals, then took off, got a step on a defender and went one-on-one with Bulldogs senior Jose Kiala, beating the keeper with a low shot to the goalie’s left for a 1-0 advantage.

“We needed a goal,” Perron said. “We were due. We kept knocking on the door, but we couldn’t finish. I just made that wide run around their defense and was able to out-pace them and get by. I saw I had the shot and just took it. It was a big relief to score.”

“That goal made me calm down quite a bit,” Hoy said. “When you don’t score for so long, it kind of gets in your head, so to get one early loosened us up a bit. They’re both good players and we’ve worked on getting more dynamic on offense. Against Noble, we tried to go straight down the middle of the field and that’s just not going to work against most high school defenses. We’ve worked on playing off each other quite a bit, instead of just playing the ball forward to Divin and it paid off today.”

“We were a little slow on defense,” lamented longtime Portland coach Rocco Frenzilli. “The ball came through and when you push a ball out to Perron, it’s tough. Jose went down a little late and (Perron) made a nice little touch to score.”

South Portland’s defense then stepped up, as senior Jack Houle broke up rushes from sophomore Martin Kalala and senior Cristo Vumpa.

In the final minute of the half, Portland finally managed its first shot, as junior Nick Paterniti served in a corner kick and senior Carlos Braceras got his head on the ball, but Red Riots junior goalkeeper Thomas Caouette made the save.

The Bulldogs then came to life in the second half, but South Portland’s defense stood tall, blocking a pair of shots by Kalala and another by junior Jack Fink.

After junior Oliver Hettenbach was just wide on a free kick, Kalala had another shot blocked and Fink was robbed by Caouette with just 24 minutes to go.

The Red Riots then had three golden opportunities to double their lead, but a Mpinga header off a corner was saved by Kiala, Kiala dove to deny senior Sam Kierstead and after a defender slipped, Mpinga had a great look, but missed wide.

The Bulldogs then spent the rest of the game trying to equalize.

To no avail.

First, Vumpa had a free kick saved by Caouette.

Caouette then denied a shot from the side from junior Kosta Nedejkovic.

South Portland then headed out a pair of corner kicks before Mvula broke up a rush from Nedejkovic in the box.

With under a minute to play, Paterniti had a free kick cleared, Hettenbach took a free kick which was blocked by Mpinga, then as time wound down, Paterniti took one more shot, but Caouette made the save the Red Riots celebrated their 1-0 victory.

“This is a huge win for us,” Perron said. “It’s a confidence-booster. It’s always a good game when we play (Portland). It feels good to beat them.”

“We’re strong and resilient in the back,” Houle said. “We have experience and we play together. We just had to stay strong at the end. Our midfielders did a good job helping in the back. They helped us clear the ball since Portland pressed us the whole second half.”

“I was a little disappointed in the fouls we gave up to give them opportunities at the end, instead of playing clean and letting the clock run, but I thought our defense played really well again today,” Hoy added.

Each team finished with five shots. Caouette made five saves for South Portland.

Portland got four saves from Kiala and had a 9-4 advantage in corner kicks, but couldn’t find the net.

“I’m proud of our effort,” Frenzilli said. “We have nothing to hang our heads for. We played a great second half. Balls got played where they were supposed to get played. Everybody has a job to do with the ball and the finishing thing is to knock it in the goal. If you get the ball all the way through, you did everything you needed to do but the final thing. SP did it and we didn’t and that was the difference. I thought we carried play in the second half. They just bent but didn’t break. They got numbers behind the ball. They blocked a lot of shots. That’s what you do with a one-goal lead.”

Next week

Portland has its next two games on the road, next Saturday at Sanford, then at Marshwood.

“We have six games left,” said Frenzilli. “We’ll build in the month of October and get healthy. We have to find a way to put the ball in the net. Every game will be like this. We have a nice week off and be ready for Sanford next Saturday. We want to be playing our best at tournament time. We’re figuring it out. We’ll be there.”

South Portland returns to action Wednesday at Marshwood. The Red Riots are back home next Saturday to face Massabesic.

“We have to keep up our good play,” Houle said. “It seems like the harder the opponent, the better we play. We have to keep that mindset going into the other games too for the rest of the season.”

“We just have to keep practicing hard and staying disciplined and staying positive,” Perron said. “We’re a tight-knit group.”

“Our games have been really, really close,” added Hoy. “It’s going to be fun come playoff time. A lot of teams can win the whole thing.”

Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @foresports.