The Pilgrim girls’ soccer team evened its season series with cross-town rival Toll Gate with a 3-2 victory on Thursday, as Alexis Vieira scored on a penalty kick late in the second half to decide the tilt.

But the call that led to the penalty kick was controversial.

As Vieira neared the goal, Toll Gate keeper Ani Armenakyan came out to challenge. Vieira bumped the ball over her head and Armenakyan made contact with Vieira, triggering the referee to call a foul on Armenakyan in the box.

Toll Gate head coach Lonna Razza disagreed with the call, as did Titans’ fans, but nonetheless, Vieira calmly drilled a right-footed shot to the back of the goal with around 10 minutes remaining.

The Titans couldn’t recover from the highly-disputed goal, as the Pats were able to escape with three points.

“When something like that happens, you could put 50 referees in that corner and you’d probably have 25 go in favor of the keeper and 25 go in favor of the attacker,” Pilgrim head coach Tom Flanders said of the foul on Vieira. “It’s just a judgment call. Referees are human beings and they’re going to make decisions.”

Unfortunately, the bit of chaos that ensued towards the end of the game took away from what was an outstanding game from both teams.

Toll Gate struck first in the opening half, despite Pilgrim creating more chances early.

Hannah McNulty released a shot from just outside of the box that was blocked, but she controlled the rebound and ripped a well-placed shot to the lower left corner of the net to give the Titans a 1-0 lead.

But Pilgrim wasn’t ready to pack it in just yet.

Minutes later, Vieira took a shot that hit the crossbar over the outstretched arms of Armenakyan. However, the ball shot straight down to a wide-open Kendra Tantimonico, who tapped the ball into the goal to tie the game at 1.

Pilgrim’s captain wasn’t done there.

This time, Tantimonico cut to the middle of the field near the top of the box and released a laser that eluded Armenakyan and found its way under the crossbar to give the Pats a 2-1 lead prior to halftime.

When Pilgrim and Toll Gate met two weeks back, Toll Gate was the team that came out of the gates strong. Going into Thursday’s rematch, Flanders and the Pats were determined to put the pressure on the Titans early.

“Yesterday, that was something we spoke about after practice,” Flanders said of getting a strong start. “I wanted them to come out and be ready to go. [Toll Gate] scored first, but I thought we responded extremely well after that.”

In the second half, Toll Gate was able to knot the score early.

McNulty buried a highlight-reel goal for her second tally of the afternoon, as she gained possession to the right of the goal, turned around and bended a shot to the left side of the goal to tie the score at 2.

The two teams played conservatively through the middle portion of the second half, as neither team really took any chances.

That is, until Vieira created a scoring chance with her speed that led to the eventual game-winning penalty kick.

With the win, Pilgrim improved to 12-2 in Division II-Central, while Toll Gate fell to 13-2.

Flanders was proud of the way that Pilgrim and Toll Gate performed on Thursday, and he also commended both teams for the tremendous seasons they’re having up until this point.

“I look at Warwick soccer, both teams, and I’m just extremely proud,” Flanders said. “We have two teams with two losses and only a few games left – it’s just a great standard of soccer. That game had a little bit of everything. I’m proud of my team and the Toll Gate kids, because when it comes down to it, we’re all from Warwick.”

The Pats were set to play at Vets on Monday night, but results were unavailable at press time.

As for Toll Gate, it will host Tiverton on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Bend Street Complex.

There’s no question that both teams are trending in the right direction heading into the final week of the regular season.

“I think these two teams are peaking at the right time,” Flanders said. “These teams look extremely tough. Other teams in the league should be ready for these two teams – it was a very, very competitive game today.”