By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

Lutcher entered the Christmas weekend with an impressive non-district victory Thursday as it defeated rival St. Charles, 8-4, at St. Charles.

Kassidy Zeringue scored four goals to lead the Bulldogs (10-2-1) to their 10th win, in only the school soccer program’s second season.

“We were able to utilize our speed up front. We ran one or two plays, give and go’s, and were able to take advantage,” said Lutcher coach Neta Bourgeois. “(Kassidy) is an exceptional athlete and teammate. She sparked us tonight.”

Said St. Charles coach Don Peyton, “It was a tough one. We made too many mistakes. We scored two against ourselves on own goals … This is a good local rivalry, like Riverside. Lutcher’s got a good program going.”

Lutcher led 2-1 after a corner kick led to an own goal for the Comets 12 minutes into the game. It opened the floodgates on a night where the Bulldogs would lead 5-1 at halftime.

Abarie Louque made it 3-1 with 25:05 left in the first half on a close range shot off of a cross from Zeringue after SCC goalkeeper Shelby Schneider came out to challenge; the Bulldog duo had her outnumbered in the box 2-1.

Just under three minutes later, Zeringue appeared to score again, but the goal was nullified when Lutcher was called offsides. A minute later, SCC missed a chance to answer when Laura Hane just missed wide of the goal.

But after a Schneider save at the other end, a follow by Sadie DiCharry found the net to make it 4-1. Zeringue’s first goal made it 5-1 with 9:25 left before the half.

“We spread the field effectively,” said Zeringue. “Passed it around and played as a team. We came out and played hard from the start.”

Said Peyton, “(Zeringue) killed us. The three games we’ve lost, it’s really come down to a dominant player on the other side … We had speed in the back, but we made a few mistakes, and against a skilled player that’s all it takes … We just couldn’t stop her.”

55 seconds into the second half, Zeringue scored again to make it 6-1.

SCC got on the board in the second half on the back of Hane, who popped in a goal at the four-minute mark.

Her second came 11 minutes in to make it 6-3.

Zeringue quieted any thoughts of a rally, though, with scores in the 15th and 34th minutes of play. SCC’s Jalynn Johnson scored with four minutes left to cap the night.

Kaitlyn Lemoine scored SCC’s first goal of the night.

“We did a very good job defensively in the back and handled things well in the midfield,” said Bourgeois. “Jamie Louque and Wren Williamson I thought were two who did a really good job for us tonight.”