By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

BATON ROUGE — St. Charles won all three of its games at the Bayou Invitational tournament in Baton Rouge, rebounding from an 0-2 start to its soccer season.

The Comet boys defeated Redemptorist, Thibodaux and McKinley in the abbreviated tourney, which was cut short due to weather issues.

“The first couple of games, the challenge was getting everyone to play together,” said St. Charles coach Bill Ballard. “But things clicked for us over the last week of practice.

St. Charles’ 4-0 win over Redemptorist was highlighted by a three goal effort by freshman Jordan Miranda, just the start of what would be a big tourney effort. Jimmy Antin added a goal for SCC.

Against Thibodaux, Miranda scored two more goals in a 3-0 win. Matt Autin also knocked in a score for the Comets (3-2).

Finally, against McKinley, Miranda scored just one goal —but it was key. His lone score near the end of the first half proved the game-winner in a 1-0 victory.

“He’s a freshman and a very smart player,” said Ballard. “He’s picking up the system rapidly. He’s a good player and I certainly hope he keeps it up.”

Ballard noted that the Comets have started slow in each of the last two seasons and that the tourney success was a welcome dose of early success.

“We knew we had to be prepared for this tournament,” said Ballard. “We opened up against two pretty good teams (Central Lafourche and Rummel) but we didn’t play a full 80 minutes. We knew this time that we couldn’t have any mental lapses. In soccer, you could play great for 78 minutes. You play badly for two, it could be a loss … it was good to get some wins, to have some success and for the players to believe in the system.”