By JOHNNY PEPPO

Sports Editor

Nine soccer teams from the River Region made the playoffs this year with the St. Charles boy’s squad nabbing the highest seed in district 8-III as the district champs. The boys teams from East St. John and Hahnville have each earned home games for the bi-district round of the playoffs, while both Riverside’s boys’ and girls’ teams, along with Destrehan’s boys, drew road games on the Northshore.

The soccer playoffs opened this Wednesday with the Lady Comets hosting Northlake Christian in a chilly late game that saw a steady, light rain thin out the stands as fans had took cover and brought out the umbrellas right at the onset of play. St. Charles could manage a goal, but the Lady Wolverines earned two and advanced to the regionals bracket in division III.

The boys squad from St. Charles is set to take on Country Day Saturday after beating E.D. White last week for the second time this season to capture the district championship. Victoria Hildestead and Reyna Lubin scored for SCC while Peter Lambert-Oswald scored another.

&#8220We play a tough schedule during the season so that when we get to the playoffs, we’ve seen about as hard a team as we’re going to see,” said St. Charles coach Rick Woodroof said of how his team prepares for the post-season. &#8220We’ve seen some pretty good competition, but we had to cut out some of the games on our original schedule. I’m hoping that maybe it works out in our favor and these guys are still fresh.”

East St. John’s boys squad is also looking toward a playoff run, to cap as strong a season as they’ve had in years after sweeping Destrehan and taking district runner-up to DHS. with their last game of the regular schedule. That gives them a home game against Woodlawn, the third seed in from district seven.

Riverside has two games set for Saturday, with the boys playing University at LSU at noon, and the Lady Rebels at Country Day at 3:15 p.m.