By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur
RESERVE — Riverside’s got a winning streak going, its leading scorer back in the lineup, and now a second consecutive district championship to call its own.
The Lady Rebels wrapped up the latter Saturday with a 4-0 win over host St. Charles, sweeping their local rival and nailing down an outright District 9-III title in the process.
Riverside (14-8-3, 5-0) had one more district match against Haynes, scheduled to be played yesterday. But a St. Charles victory over the Yellow Jackets last week gave Haynes a second district loss and denied it a chance to share district championship honors with a win.
“It’s something we set out to do,” said Riverside coach Brittany St. Pierre. “At the same time, the message I’m conveying to them is to keep the pressure on. We still need to keep getting better, and the last thing we want to do is relax as the playoffs are coming up.”
Riverside has won five consecutive matches.
Maddie Duhon scored two goals to lead RA over the Comets. Kaitlyn Masters scored one as did Jordan Duhon, who made her return to the lineup a day earlier against St. Martin’s; Duhon was RA’s leading scorer when she was sidelined due to an appendectomy earlier this month. She missed the first round of district play and returned to play limited minutes Friday, with a heavier load Saturday.
“We’ve been clicking,” said St. Pierre. “We’ve been really making strides offensively and now we add Jordan back into our attack, and she just adds to it … Our defense has been outstanding all year, but now our offense is just operating at a higher level than it was early this season.”
St. Pierre said that with Duhon out, others have had to be more assertive offensively, stepping forward to lead the offense.
“When we’ve got five different girls scoring, it just makes us that much more difficult to defend,” she said.
The win over the Comets came one day after a 5-0 victory at St. Martin’s.
Mary Gurley scored a pair of goals to lead RA. Megan Stein, Maddie Duhon and Taylor Terrio each added another.
Riverside has shut out its last three opponents.
“Defensively, we’ve been pretty strong all season,” said St. Pierre. “Everyone’s done a great job to chip in there. In the goal, Kenzie (Saucier) been impressive, especially considering her youth (Saucier is an 8th grader).”
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