South Portland knew they were fighting for their playoff livelihood as they met up with Cheverus in an SMAA boys soccer matchup on Monday afternoon. With their thrilling 3-2 win, they might have kept those hopes alive.

“We had a few tough last games, and were hoping to get one of them so it wouldn’t have to come down to beating Cheverus to get into the playoffs,” said senior captain Brian Arsenault.

South Portland got on the board first with a late first half goal by Will Bushey off an assist by Nmanja Kaurin. But with just 18 seconds left on the clock, a goal by Cheverus’ Louis DiStasio knotted the score at 1-1 going into the half.

The goal came off an assist by Thomas Mourmouras, a key player South Portland coach Bryan Hoy had instructed his team to keep covered.

“We had a letdown and left Mourmouras unmarked,” said Hoy. “He’s way too good of a player to be unmarked in the box.”

Coming out of the half, the Red Riots seemed to have remembered that a playoff berth was on the line, as their intensity level had spiked. “This game it was so or die, so we gave it everything we had,” said Arsenault of his team’s intensity level.

After the game, Hoy and his players said they also had senior Thanh Nguyen on their mind. Nguyen had received a red card in their last game against Portland and had to sit out the Cheverus game.

“Thanh plays with so much heart and cares so much about this team that it was a heartbreaker for us,” said Arsenault. “We all wanted to come out and win this game for him so he could have at least one more game before his high school soccer career was over.”

Arsenault used that inspiration to put the Red Riots back on top at 28:34 left in the game. Nick Brown was fed a cross and headed the ball, but it deflected off the cross bar. Arsenault found himself in the right place at the right time as he snatched the rebound and stuck a shot into the left corner of the net.

South Portland added another goal at 21:26 as Kaurin found a streaking Dan Grzewski, who fired off a shot from the top of the penalty box.

It proved to be the deciding goal as Cheverus could only net one more with a late score by Maxwell Miller.

The win kept South Portland’s playoff hopes alive, but they still needed help from their rival Portland who would face Bonny Eagle Tuesday night, a game played after the Current’s deadline.

“We’re all Bulldogs fans tomorrow,” said Hoy. “Probably never be Bulldogs fans again, but tomorrow we’re rooting for them.”