By RYAN ARENA
Sports Editor

Don Peyton hasn’t been quite as animated on the sidelines as he’s been in years past.

The St. Charles girls soccer coach has always been in control, calling in plays and directing traffic from the bench. But now, more than ever, Peyton’s been able to do something he hasn’t often been able to do.

Sit, watch, and enjoy.

“It’s like watching your child walk for the first time,” says Peyton. “I don’t have to instruct them on every little detail. They know. And sometimes, I just ask myself, ‘Where did this come from?’”

In Peyton’s third season with the girls’ team, his Lady Comets are growing up – and fast.

Last season, St. Charles defeated Parkview Baptist 2-1 in the bi-district round of the playoffs, advancing past the opening round for the first time in school history.

Despite a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to Catholic-Pointe Coupee in the regional round, the Comets have extended the momentum of last season to perhaps the most impressive start in the program’s history. An upperclassman-laden team boasting seven seniors, St. Charles is 9-2-2, and undefeated in the month of December.

The team’s only two losses have come at the hands of defending Division II champion Vandebilt Catholic — the first a 3-0 loss in the season opener that the Comets played without dynamic senior scorer Reyna Lubin. The second was much closer – a 1-0 loss in the semifinals of the Central Lafourche tournament in late November. Vandebilt scored the winning goal with five minutes left on a penalty kick – SCC was whistled for a handball.

Peyton believes in loading his team’s early schedule with tough games to prepare for the late season grind. The Division III SCC squad has tied a one loss St. Thomas Aquinas team and has already faced eight Division I teams – winning seven of those, and tying an eighth with Comeaux.

“At the end of the season, there should be no surprises,” he says.

Contrast SCC’s current record with its mark after 13 games a year ago, and it’s easy to see how far the team has come – SCC was 3-10 against a similarly tough schedule as 2008 began.

“Our hearts are all in this,” says Lubin. “We have no doubts that we can go really far.”

100 AND COUNTING

Of course, when St. Charles soccer is discussed, it takes hardly seconds for Lubin’s name to come up. The senior forward scored her 100th career goal in a game against H.L. Bourgeois in late November, and she did it in her usual fashion – the goal that got her to triple digits was her fourth of the game.

Multi goal games are more the rule, and not the exception for Lubin. But this season, she’s played off the ball more than ever – and it’s become a positive trend.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in each other,” said Lubin. “We’re talking a lot, we’re passing more. The more we pass, the faster we break teams down.”

As a result, not only has Lubin been able to still put up her usual gaudy numbers, but the team’s offensive efficiency has spiked as well. As a ball-handler and scorer, Lubin is as gifted as they come, and other teams know it.

“Teams come in looking at her, thinking ‘We’ve got to stop her. We’ve just got to shut one person down,’” Peyton said.

“But now, she’s not forcing the issue. She knows the more she plays off the ball, not only are our other players going to get good looks, but she’ll get even better looks than before when we feed it back to her.”

DOMINATING ‘D’

While Lubin has been the team’s signature player, defense has truly been the Comets’ calling card.

St. Charles allowed eight goals over its first two games of the season. Since then, the Comets have allowed a combined six goals in 11 games, with no multi goal games among them.

That’s how Peyton likes it. A former defensive player in his own prep career, he believes in building a suffocating goal-stopping unit.

“A lot of teams want to pound it at you. But what good is it to score five goals if you can’t stop anyone?” Peyton said. “You can put an offense together. But if a team pounds all day long against you, and can’t get a shot off, it frustrates them. A team used to scoring five or six times, they don’t like to play in those types of games.”

Senior Emily Bourgeois was the defensive player of the year in District 7-II a year ago, and is one of the team’s leaders on a back line that’s played a huge role in frustrating the opposition, along with fellow defenders Ricki Bratcher and Kristine Brouwer.

“We know each other’s strong points,” says Bourgeois. “We communicate all game. We’ll sit back there and joke with one another, even in the tough games. We’re all really close, and we have a blast out there.”

There haven’t been too many of those tough games. Even if the Comets struggle offensively, the defense ensures a game won’t get too far away from them.

“We’ve got a lot of speed all over the field,” Bourgeois said.

(See COMETS, Page 12A)

“We’ve been playing together a long time, for three years. It’s very exciting – this feels like the year we can really go far.”

LEADING LADIES

When it was time to name a captain, the Comets decided they were better served to find strength in numbers.

“We all wanted to run with it,” said Bourgeois of the team’s seniors. “We decided that we’d share the responsibility.”

“All of us said that there wouldn’t be one captain,” Lubin agreed. “We’d do it together. We’ve all; been here four years, or five years. It really makes a difference – everyone wants to step it up on the field.”

Peyton said he wondered who would step up. When he heard their answer, he gave his blessing.

“They told me, ‘Coach, we all want to be captain.’ They all just believe in themselves,” Peyton said. “And I believe in those girls, too.”

GOING FORWARD

For now, its first things first for the Comets – wrest an outright district title away from E.D. White, who split the crown with the Comets a season ago.

Then, who knows.

“We know we can go further than we did a year ago,” said Bourgeois. “We think we have what it takes to go all the way.”

Said Lubin: “We won’t get knocked out in round two for sure.”

As for Peyton, he says that regardless of how it ends, he knows that he’s coached a special group.

“I just hope that when everything’s said and done, people look at St. Charles as a soccer program, not just another school with a soccer team,” Peyton says. “A lot of schools have the luxury of having 40 or 50 girls try out to play.

“But the 22 I have, they give everything for me. I wouldn’t trade this bunch for any other in the city.”