By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

LAPLACE — You can now officially call it a rivalry.

That much was clear after Riverside’s 3-1 district victory at St. Charles Thursday night, one that represented Riverside’s second win in its last three meetings with SCC.

Those two wins represent the first victories for the Rebels over St. Charles in the series’ history, one that’s been historically dominated by the Comets.

But Thursday looked to be anything but a one-sided neighborhood meeting. The match saw chippy play throughout and a case of tempers flaring near its conclusion, with two players ejected for fighting and a total of three penalty cards handed out on the night.

The victory put Riverside atop the district heap and denied St. Charles a chance to take a commanding lead over the Rebels and St. Martin’s, which St. Charles defeated in a dramatic overtime game on Tuesday.

Shelby Deslatte, Kaitlyn Roussel and Jordan Duhon all scored for the Rebels (10-7-2, 2-0), who secured double-digit wins for the first time in school history.

“We’ve done a lot of things over the last year-plus that we’d never done before,” said Riverside coach Stephen Millet. “We’ve got high expectations for ourselves and we believe in the way we play. And I think that was on display tonight.”

They had to come from behind, however, as St. Charles led throughout much of the match after Jalynn Johnson scored a goal in close with 29 minutes left in the first half.

Riverside controlled the ball for much of the game, but saw many opportunities to tie things up slip by. Just five minutes in, a Mary Gurley shot struck the crossbar. A Duhon strike was blocked by SCC goalkeeper Shelby Schneider, then another attempt by Duhon went just wide of the goal. A minute later, Schneider made another save on Duhon, and 10 minutes before halftime, Deslatte hit the right post.

“We did a good job of not panicking,” said Millet. “We’ve done a good job all season of playing the way we want and need to play, our hardest, no matter if we’re up or we’re down/”

SCC held its lead until 17:15 remaining, when Deslatte got another opportunity in close and found an opening to make it a 1-1 game.

Riverside started to celebrate at the 10 minute mark when it appeared Taylor Terrio had scored on a shot that hit the opposite post—the shot momentarily looked to have bounced in, but it richocheted outward.

But four minutes later Roussel made good on a chance, scoring on a short left footed kick across her body on an assist from Gurley.

“We felt like we were playing well, but knew we had to come out and play even harder (after trailing at halftime),” said Roussel, nicknamed “Cookie” by teammates. “Eventually, the things were doing well all game paid off.”

Said Millet of Roussel, a freshman and the smallest girl on the field, “Cookie is someone who works so hard for an opportunity day in and day out … as a coach, I can’t keep her out of the lineup, because I know she makes good things happen through her effort.

“And what a time for a freshman to step up.”

With two minutes left, Riverside put things away on a Duhon goal.

ST. CHARLES 5, ST. MARTIN’S 3 (2 OT) — Laura Hane scored four goals and Jalynn Johnson scored another as the Comets defeated district foe St. Martin’s Tuesday night.

Hane scored the eventual game-winner in overtime and Johnson tacked on another to seal things for St. Charles.