By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

RESERVE — East St. John extended its unbeaten streak this season Tuesday, emerging with a victory at home over Riverside, 3-1, at Joe Keller Memorial Stadium.

DeChris Strong scored two goals and Andrew Alexander scored another to lead the Wildcats to the win.

“I’m very excited. I feel like we have a great team this year,” said Strong. “We have a chance to do some great things. Everyone is about winning and making the playoffs, winning district. There’s no clowning around.”

East St. John (5-0-2) appeared to take a 1-0 lead in the 19th minute on a header by Alexander, but he was ruled to be offsides and the goal was disallowed.

But in the 29th minute, the Wildcats broke through on Strong’s first goal, where he placed a shot into the goal from very close range to put ESJ ahead 1-0.

“They’ve got some very skilled players. It was a matter of time before one made us pay,” said Riverside coach Stephen Millet.

But five minutes later, a game Rebels’ squad answered right back on the back of Beau Gaudet, who scored in the 34th minute to tie things up going into halftime.

Each team traded near goals in the first 20 minutes of the second half, with a free kick by ESJ’s Marco Barrera sailing wide left and a close miss by Gaudet at the other end. Riverside goalkeeper Zachary Sparcella made a handful of nice saves, including one in point blank range off the foot of Strong. 25 minutes into the second half, Alexander hit the Riverside (1-5) goal bar and his shot bounced out.

But Strong finally put another through to give ESJ the lead when he dinked one in from close range, making it 2-1.

Alexander essentially slammed the door with a minute left in play, putting in his team’s third goal off the leg of a Rebel defender.

“We had some lapses that can be corrected,” said Millet. “Two of those goals came on fixable mistakes on our end. We’ll clean that up as time goes.”

East St. John coach Paul Dupuy said he saw a good bit of poise from his team Tuesday.

“We showed a lot of patience and we passed it well,” said Dupuy. “We have the team speed that can crush people, but only when we use it effectively.”

Strong said that his team remembers starting off hot a year ago but fading in a strong district.

“We don’t want to let that happen again,” Strong said. We want to finish it out this year.”