The Portland High girls’ soccer team picked a good time to get its biggest victory of the season.

Anneliese Collin scored a pair of goals and assisted on a third, goalkeeper Lucy Tidd anchored a strong defensive showing and Portland weathered a late push from Cheverus to earn a 3-1 victory Monday.

Portland is 7-6 with one game left in the regular season, and winners of six of the last eight games after starting the season 1-4.

“(It’s a) big, big confidence boost,” Collin said. “We definitely played some hard teams at the beginning, got some easy teams in the middle and we’ve definitely been pushing hard.”

Cheverus (9-4) ramped up the intensity after falling behind 2-0 and drew within one with 19 minutes left, but Portland withstood the attack to earn its first win against a team over .500.

“I think it proved to them today that, when they step between the lines, they have an opportunity to compete,” Coach Matt Bernstein said. “I could see, together, that they made the decision, ‘We’re not going to let this one go. We’re going to take it.’”

Portland jumped in front after Eliza Stein was awarded a penalty kick in the 22nd minute. Her shot was stopped by Evelyn Rush (four saves), but Collin came in on the loose ball and knocked in the rebound with 18:18 left in the half.

“People forget (it’s live) a lot. On penalty kicks, anything can happen. It can hit the post, it can hit the crossbar,” Collin said. “Always think that it’s going to get rebounded back, and where you’re going to need to be.”

Collin found Kate Martell for a goal with 24:31 to go in the game when she drew the Cheverus defense right and passed it back left, giving Martell a clear shot at the goal.

Cheverus answered as Sophia Monfa, who had a goal negated by an offsides call in the 49th minute, scored off an assist from Annie Vigue with 19:10 left. The Stags kept coming, and had perhaps their best look at the tying goal in the 68th minute when Vigue and Monfa again converged on the goal.

Tidd, however, made the save, one of the 11 she had for the game.

“She was really the port in the storm a lot for us tonight, and we needed her,” Bernstein said. “She’s been really awesome all year.”

Martell fed Collin for a goal with 6:59 to go, icing the victory.

“(She’s a) dynamic, game-changing type of player,” Bernstein said. “A lot of players in that position think first about themselves and then about the team, and she’s the exact opposite. She’s team, team, team, all the way.”

Cheverus Coach Craig Roberts was disappointed with how his team played.

“We got through a couple of times and couldn’t settle the ball, or played it right at the goalie,” he said. “This is not a time of year where you can typically get away with that. … You want to be playoff ready, so you need to kind of treat the games like that. I’m not sure we did that today.”

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