EAST PROVIDENCE — The East Providence High School boys’ soccer team closed out the first half of its 2021 Division I regular season schedule Saturday, Oct 2, earning a road win over Barrington, 2-1.

Brett Schwab was involved in both E.P. tallies. In the first half, he quickly took a free kick from the Townies’ side of the pitch following an Eagles’ infraction, about 60 yards out, sending it towards the Barrington 18-yard bod where Morrison corralled the ball, dribbled past the on-rushing Eagle keeper and punched it in for the goal.

In the second half, Schwab potted a penalty kick after Jacob Barcelos was fouled by Barrington inside the 18.

The Eagles scored with about eight minutes left in the game to make things a bit interesting before the Townies closed out the win, which sent Barrington to its second loss in a row after starting the season with six wins on the trot. Keeper Nick Bento was credited with five saves in the E.P.

East Providence improved to 3-1-4 in the league table with 13 points following the away win over the Eagles, reaching the mid-point of its league schedule in fifth place and well within the playoff qualifying spots.

“We’ve beaten two teams (Barrington and North Kingstown) ahead of us in the standings. I think if you look at who we’ve played, we’ve played all of the top teams in the state with the exception of Shea, we’ve done fairly well. Unfortunately, we gave up some points (in ties) against Tolman and Shea. And South Kingstown (a 2-1 loss) was disappointing because we dropped points late. But all things considered, we’ve put ourselves in a good spot to make a run in the second half of the season,” said EPHS head coach Tony Vieira.

The Townies were coming off a 1-0 victory over visiting Bishop Hendricken at the new EPHS stadium on Wednesday, Sept. 29. Nick Morrison’s goal in the 22nd minute of the opening period proved the only tally of the evening.

Bento was a stalwart in net for the Townies all evening, making several key saves, including a couple in the closing minutes of the contest, en route to recording the shutout. The Hawks came closest to leveling the match some five minutes into the second half, but their apparent tying tally was ruled offside.

The goal sequence began with a free kick by E.P.’s R.J. DeCampos, his shot tipped by the Hendricken off the crossbar and back into play where Morrison was there to bang it into the open net. Bento also finished with five saves against the Hawks.

The Townies return to action Wednesday, Oct. 6, in Providence against Central at Conley Stadium. Game time is 4 p.m. EPHS returns home Saturday afternoon, Oct. 9, to face Central Falls at 1 o’clock.

The locals, according to Vieira, head into a stretch of games to begin the second half of their league slate against teams below them in the standings when they could solidify, if not improve, their postseason lot.

“As a team, I don’t think we’ve played our best yet, and I’m O.K. with that. You definitely want to be playing your best at this time of the year going forward,” Vieira said. “We’ve been able to grind out some results, which is good. We’re working hard and playing cohesively. We should be scoring some more goals, creating some separation in games so we could settle in and let more kids play. But overall I’m happy with where we are as a group. We’re on our way to getting a (playoff) bid and hopefully getting a home game and a bye, which would be really nice.”