South Portland, by and large, pushed through a building season this fall.

Karen Reardon’s cross country girls capped an excellent season with a fifth-place finish at States. The Gentlemen Riots, coached by Dave Kahill, also reached States, where they took 15th.

Bryan Hoy’s soccer boys are becoming a real force in A South, but haven’t quite broken into the top tier. The Riots went 7-3-4 in the regular season to enter the playoffs ranked sixth; they thrashed No. 11 Kennebunk 8-1 in the prelims and pulled off an impressive upset, 3-2 on penalty kicks, over Thornton in the quarters, but fell to last year’s State victors, Cheverus, 1-0 in the semis.

Jeff Selser’s girls improved in 2015, going 5-8-1 through the regular season. They just missed the playoffs cut, though, finishing 13th.

Leslie Dyer’s field hockey squad missed the playoffs as well, going 3-11 through the regular season.

A drug issue cost Steve Stinson’s footballers one of their key players this season. Still, they soldiered on, going 2-6 through the regular season to enter the playoffs ranked sixth in A South. Bonny Eagle bounced them 47-7 in the first round, however.

Nicole McAllister’s volleyballers finished the regular season 6-8 – another improvement for a South Portland program compared with last year – but that wasn’t quite good enough to reach the postseason. The Riots ended the autumn ranked 13th.

South Portland’s Juliana Selser shoulders into Gorham’s Lizzie Sullivan on the Rams’ home turf early in the season.South Portland senior captain Drew Bradbury carries through midfield in a Riots victory over Westbrook.