Wildcats go 2-0-1 at Woodlawn tournament; Trant scores three goals in win

By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

A promising beginning took a sudden turn for the worse for East St. John on Wednesday in its district matchup at Destrehan.

East St. John controlled the ball and the flow of the game early on. But Destrehan was able to take advantage of the inexperience of its opposition, scoring once after a defensive lapse by ESJ, then on a deflection off of an ESJ defender.

Once a lead was established, Destrehan upped the pressure, and notched a 4-0 victory over East St. John.

“I really felt like we matched up better with them (than against Dutchtown),” said East St. John Coach Paul Dupuy. “We really didn’t play very well, especially in the middle portion of the game.”

The win was key in District 6-I, as Destrehan (8-5-3, 3-0) remained perfect and in a first place tie.

Meanwhile, East St. John (7-6-1, 0-3) still searches for its first District victory. It was scheduled to host Hahnville on Friday.

“We’ve got a lot of very competitive guys, but we’re young,” said Dupuy. “Last year, we had guys who had played together for two and three years. That isn’t there yet for this group.”

The teams were deadlocked in a scoreless tie for the first 25 minutes of the game. But Destrehan scored its first goal, crossing up a pair of ESJ defenders. They added another after a corner kick, in which the ball bounced off the back leg of an ESJ defender and into the goal.

“Our goalkeeper had no chance,” said Dupuy. “It’s a ball that should have been knocked away, but it just didn’t happen.”

Destrehan added its third goal off a penalty kick, and East St. John couldn’t recover.

“Nothing went right for us after those first couple of goals,” said Dupuy. “The biggest thing is we couldn’t get our offense going. We tried to shift some people to get it going, but they were able to attack us once we did.”

Last weekend, East St. John won two out of three games in the Baton Rouge City Championship at Woodlawn.

On a muddy, wet field that was torn up by heavy rain, the Wildcats were still able to find their offensive rhythm, winning 8-0 over Catholic High Pointe Coupee (0-9) last Friday.

ESJ scored four goals in each half. Brandon Trant led all scorers with three goals. Ricky Grinstead scored two. Terrance Crushfield, Blaine Robertson, and Rene Jones each scored one.

Later that day, East St. John was locked in a 1-1 tie with Belaire (1-9) before officials declared the field unplayable, and postponed the second half until the next day.

On Saturday, field conditions were much better and the Wildcats added three goals to win their second straight game, 4-1. DeChris Strong scored two goals, while Trant and Grinstead added one each.

The Wildcats’ faced a familiar opponent in its final tournament game on Saturday. Host Woodlawn (6-7-4) met East St. John in the first round of the state playoffs last season, emerging with a 3-2 win.

Nothing would be settled between the teams, however – each brought its defensive intensity and the game ended in a 0-0 tie.

Dupuy credited Wildcats goalkeeper Joseph Perrilloux for his performance under some slippery conditions.

“He did a great job hanging on to some tough shots,” said Dupuy.