EAST PROVIDENCE — The East Providence High School boys’ soccer team stumbled in its first attempt to secure the one point the Townies needed to secure a Division I playoff berth as the locals were humbled by visiting Cumberland, 6-0, in a league match played in city Wednesday night, Oct. 12.

The locals, however, “righted the ship” in the words of head coach Tony Vieira as they closed the week with a 2-1 victory over Classical on the road Friday night, Oct. 14, to earn three points and cross the requisite threshold to reach the league playoffs.

East Providence entered last week with a 3-3-3 record in the D-I standings and needing only a point from its final five games to accrue the minimum amount of 13 to qualify for the state championship tournament. Teams receive three points for a win and one for a tie. The loss to Cumberland and the win over Classical moved E.P.’s record to 4-4-3 and 15 points with three games remaining on its regular season slate.

“Obviously for this group it’s big,” Vieira said of qualifying for the playoffs with two weeks remaining in the regular season. “It’s something we talked about early on. We want the program to continue to the make the playoffs year in and year out like we have for the last several seasons. It’s obviously one of our goals every year. Now we know we’ve extended our season at least one more game. And hopefully we can maybe get on a run and go deep in the playoffs.”

According to the coach, Cumberland caught the Townies on the back foot before the game even began and the Clippers kept the pressure on the rest of the way. East Providence, it should be noted, was without three starters entering the contest then lost center forward Ethan Waters to injury mere minutes into the game. Both of the E.P. keepers, starter Nicholas Bento and sub Nigel Monteiro, allowed three goals each.

Bento was credited with four saves as the Townies outlasted the host Purple in their clinching contest late last week. Offensively, the Townies took an early 1-0 lead when Andrew Jackson slipped a pass through the Classical defense to Ricardo Lima for the goal about eight minutes into the game.

E.P. could have had an even larger lead to start the game, but the Townies also hit posts twice and “missed a sitter,” Vieira said, in the opening 10 minutes.

That inability to add to the spread allowed Classical to remain engaged and the Purple eventually scored within 10 minutes of Lima’s tally to level to contest at one, where it would stay until the closing moments.

Sophomore Brian Rutkowski potted the first varsity goal of his career, taking a feed from Lima in the 77th of 80 minutes to not only help the Townies earn the win, but get over the line to reach the upcoming D-I playoffs.

“This was a nice win,” said Vieira. “The game meant a lot for both teams. (Classical) is still chasing points to make the playoffs. For us, we knew we would get in with a point. I thought they were a little flat to start the game and we played well. I would say this was most direct, competitive game we’ve played so far this season..”

The Purple fell to 2-6-3 with nine points in the standings with the loss and with four games left on their schedule.

As mentioned, E.P. had three games left to play before the postseason, including games in Lincoln, October 19, and Barrington, October 24, before finishing with a home date against LaSalle on Wednesday night, Oct. 26, at 6:30 p.m. The game against the neighboring Eagles next Monday also has a 6:30 p.m. first kick.

“To do it with three games left gives us some breathing room. Hopefully, we get some people healthy. We can rest some other guys if we need to and we can also play some guys who haven’t seen much time,” Vieira added. “There’s nothing but positives to clinching a playoff berth this early.”