By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur
LAPLACE — St. Charles played plenty of extra soccer over the past week, and the end result sees the Comets on the cusp of nailing down one of their biggest goals.
St. Charles defeated St. Martin’s in overtime Tuesday, 6-4, and Haynes 4-2 in a shootout that followed a pair of scoreless overtime periods last Friday.
The wins improved St. Charles to 4-1 in district play and sets up a chance for SCC (6-7 overall) to clinch the District 9-III championship at home Monday against St. Martin’s. That match will begin at 6 p.m.
The Comets could have a share of the district title sewn up already if Haynes were to down St. Martin’s in the match between the two this weekend.
“With such a young team, it took a little time for us to settle in and get comfortable with what we were doing,” said St. Charles coach Sean LeBlanc, who is in his first season with the team. “Right now, we’re first in district and the guys are playing with a lot of confidence and enthusiasm.”
The St. Martin’s game was a back and forth affair that saw SCC fall behind 2-0 before coming back to tie. The Comets also had to rally to tie the game at 3-3 and 4-4, the latter coming in dramatic fashion as SCC scored with just 30 seconds left in stoppage time.
“They scored a couple of goals on us, easy goal, within 10 minutes,” said LeBlanc. “Their goalkeeper made a mistake and then we got an easy one. And that really sparked us.”
That forced an overtime period, where Matt Broussard and Andrew Brady each scored goals to push SCC to the win.
Broussard and Nathanial Weinert each scored two goals for SCC. Albert Hane and Brady rounded out the scoring for SCC.
Against Haynes, the score was tied 1-1 after two overtime periods, setting up a shootout in PKs to decide the match.
Broussard, Hane, Brady and Dalton Landry each landed PKs to secure the win for SCC. Weinert scored the Comets’ goal in regulation.
Goalkeeper Mason Roussel made two saves in the overtime; Roussel was moved into the goal by LeBlanc for the PKs after a strong match by starter Matt Templet.
“(Roussel) is just a little more experienced, which I liked in that spot,” said LeBlanc. “He stepped up and made a couple of big stops.”
LeBlanc said that the Comets’ ability to finish these close games out on the winning end says a lot about their maturity.
“It says everything to me,” said LeBlanc. “Being so young and going through a lot of the problems at the beginning of the season … their development has come a long way. The biggest thing right now is that they’re believing.”