By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

Nothing came easy for St. Charles on Thursday as it faced district rival Riverside, but the Comets nonetheless emerged with a 2-0 win at home over the Rebels.

Josh Matherne and Paul Cupit each scored goals for the Comets.

It was the second meeting between the teams this season. SCC won the first 8-0 on Jan. 6.

“I have to give credit where it’s due,” said St. Charles coach Rick Woodroof. “Riverside played very, very well. You can see their improvement.”

SCC (5-12, 4-1) led 1-0 at halftime, after Cupit found Matherne open for a good look at the goal.

“It was a beautiful pass, right in the spot it needed to be in,” Woodroof said. “It was a real nice combo play.”

Cupit added another goal in the second half to extend the Comet lead.

“I told (Riverside coach Stephen Millet) that I really thought both teams improved from the last game,” Woodroof said. “I thought this game was very well played.”

Millet agreed with that assessment.

“I was pretty impressed with our guys. They’re showing drastic improvement,” Millet said. “They’re making great strides, able to make it a 50-50 game. We had opportunities and battled equally most of the way.”

He said especially key has been the play of the Riverside (1-8-2, 1-4) defense, including Nick Moock, Matt Graves, Mher Noljayan, Stephen Cupit and goalkeeper Beau Gaudet.

“They’ve been up to the challenge. They’re motivated, and they’ve responded,” said Millet.

E.D. WHITE 6, ST. CHARLES 0 — The Cardinals and Comets split the district 7-III crown a season ago, but E.D. White went a long way toward securing it outright with a victory last Tuesday in LaPlace.

Woodroof said that the matchup was expected to be a challenge, but that he felt he should have seen more from his team.

“(E.D. White) is more experienced for sure, but I wasn’t happy at all with our defensive play,” he said. “We worked on that mostly at practice before the Houma Christian game, and I think we’ve got things ironed out now.”