By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

ZACHARY — Matt Autin shot a team-best 170 over two days to lead St. Charles at the Class 2A state golf tournament, posting scores of 80 and 90 respectively on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Comets finished seventh overall of the nine competing teams in the field at Beaver Creek Golf Course. SCC scored 713. Last year, the Comets shot 764 and came out last out of 10 teams.

“We played about our average this season, and I believe we did better than we did here last season,” said St. Charles golf coach Gary Zeringue. “Our average over 36 holes for the year was 176, and we finished here at 178.

“We shot better than our average in the regional and better on Wednesday, so that raised our hopes. It was a very tight tournament and we were riding a bit of momentum. But big picture, I’m very happy with what we’ve accomplished.”

Calvary Baptist captured the state championship with a score of 614. Menard and St. Thomas Aquinas finished tied for second, but Menard clinched official state runner-up honors after winning a one-hole playoff.

St. Thomas Aquinas’ Grady Brame Jr. won the individual state championship with a score of 137, which was 7-under par.

Lance Perrilloux finished with the second best score for the Comets with a 178, shooting 88 on the first day and 90 on the second. Jesse Coleman shot 182 (84, 98) and Ryan St. Pierre shot 183 (88, 95).

St. Charles finished Wednesday’s round in sixth place, giving the Comets hope of a charge into the top five.

“It was a very tight tournament at the beginning. We were 24 strokes behind Calvary, who was in first. In the past, at that point we had at times been 60 to 80 strokes back. But we knew it would be tough on the second day. It’s hard to get ready for 36 holes in two days.”

Zeringue noted that the tournament held true to form, and that the third place teams from each regional (SCC, Dunham and Sterlington) finished seventh, eighth and ninth.

“We did finish with the best score of the three third place teams,” said Zeringue. “That’s a bit of an accomplishment. I really thought our regional was the strongest.”

The Comets will move back to Class 3A next season after two years in 2A. Zeringue said that when his team originally made the move to 2A, given the high level of competition in the class, he thought it would be very difficult for St. Charles to continue its run of consecutive trips to state — at the time, SCC had gone two consecutive years.

That number now stands at four, and the veteran coach recognized the efforts of his three senior leaders in lifting the program.

“Matt Autin’s been on this team for four years. Ryan St. Pierre’s been here for five, and Jesse Coleman’s been with us for two,” said Zeringue. “I’m really proud of those guys and it’s going to be very difficult to replace them. They helped keep our program at a high level.”