AUBURN – Chris Record had presented the importance of Tuesday’s soccer game at Edward Little to his team in no uncertain terms.

With his Oxford Hills boys’ out of a playoff spot with a handful of games left, the Vikings were running out of time.

“I told the guys that we had to win three out of our last four games,” said Record. “EL has done a good job this year winning the games they had to win. Now we need to do the same.”

The Vikings made good on that challenge Tuesday. Oxford Hills roared out to a 3-0 lead in the first half and held off a late Edward Little comeback for a critical 3-2 win.

“We really needed to come out in this game and win,” said senior forward Willy Libby. “We just wanted it more.”

The Vikings (3-7-1) were ranked 18th in the latest Eastern A Heal Points and need to make up ground to achieve their goal of making the tournament for a second straight year.

“We have a lot of seniors, and this was the year we thought we were actually going to go far, and it just hasn’t worked out the way we wanted it to,” said Libby.

EL (6-4-1) were ranked eighth in the latest standings.

Playing with a sense of urgency helped the Vikings against the Red Eddies. Oxford Hills scored three goals in a span of just over five minutes to build a lead EL couldn’t overcome.

“They really had the momentum for seven or eight minutes and took advantage of it,” said EL coach Dave Morin. “We were just standing around.”

Libby scored two goals while Nick Costanzi added the third. EL got goals from Nate Guerrette and Carl Skillings but came up short in their rally.

“It’s discouraging because we didn’t execute,” said Morin. “We were not mentally in the game.”

Long’s first goal came off a corner by Jesse Strauss. Craig LaPlante redirected it toward the front where Libby had an open net with 18:30 left in the half.

Then with 16:11 remaining, Libby headed in a Strauss corner for a 2-0 lead.

Costanzi finished off a rebound of a Billy Ayotte shot with 13:24 left.

“They came out like we needed to and like we had to,” said Record. “If we lost today, our season, in terms of the playoffs, was over.”

EL got one back with 5:30 left in the half when Guerrette finished off a Raynor Large cross. Skillings scored on a penalty kick with 7:59 to get within one, but the Red Eddies couldn’t beat keeper Mike Foley. Filling in for the injured Dave LaRoach, Foley made some key saves down the stretch, including swiping away an EL header with 1:38 left. He finished with 11 saves.

“He played great,” said Record. “He stepped up huge.”