By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

METAIRIE — A nightmarish 3-minute stretch in the second half proved the beginning of the end of St. Charles Catholic’s soccer season, as the Comets fell to host Country Day 4-0 in a Division III bi-district playoff match.

Country Day took control of the match for good when the Cajuns scored three goals within three minutes, starting with Cameron Emory’s goal with 29 minutes remaining in the game.

Emory, Louis Jaubert, Jackson Jansen and Price Patagnon each scored goals for Country Day (8-9). Glen Benjamin added an assist.

“We made it our goal to score three in the second half,” said Emory. “You don’t expect it to happen at once. You never plan for  that and it doesn’t happen often. But we’re glad it did.”

Said SCC coach Sean LeBlanc, “It was pretty even up until that point. We just didn’t make the plays we needed to.”

Country Day led 1-0 at halftime.

Cajuns coach Stephen Millet, who headed the Riverside soccer program before departing for Country Day before this school year, said he knew what to expect from an old district foe in the Comets.

“I’m very familiar with St. Charles Catholic from my time at Riverside,” said Millet. “Every time they take the field, they play hard from the jump … We made some adjustments at the half that worked out for us. But we knew they’d be tough.”

Patagna scored Country Day’s first goal early on, and that 1-0 score held through the break. The Cajuns missed a chance to go up 2-0 when a Jackson Jansen shot ricocheted off the top post — perhaps giving Comet fans a flashback to SCC’s loss to St. Martin’s earlier in the week, when such a bounce ended in a Saints’ goal. But play continued.

Country Day did strike, though, when Emery scored on a long shot at the 29 minute mark to make it a 2-0 lead.

“That was a rough one,” said LeBlanc. “It really knocked the wind out of us.”

Just a little over a minute later, Jaubert added another goal, scored from out wide. The ball went through the net and to the other side, delaying the call briefly, but Country Day celebrated as the lead grew to 3-0.

Then with 26 minutes remaining, Glenn Benjamin fired one in to make it a 4-0 Country Day lead.

While the Cajuns controlled the ball for much of the first half, St. Charles began to create more chances for itself close to halftime and throughout the second half. Albert Hane attempted four second half shots and nearly notched an first half assist but for a strong save by Cajuns goalkeeper Taylor Jacobs. Jacobs also made an impressive save on a late first-half shot attempt by Matt Broussard.

“I thought we had an opportunity to seize the momentum,” said LeBlanc. “But we needed to ramp it up a little more than we did.”

The Comets were attempting to pull an upset in the first round of the postseason for the second straight season, after upending Loyola a year ago. SCC entered this postseason as the No. 20 seed, while Country Day was No. 13.

Country Day advanced to the regional, where it was slotted to face Northlake Christian.

SCC graduates two seniors from this year’s team, meaning LeBlanc will take the majority of his roster with him into his second season as coach.

“I thought we progressed pretty rapidly, faster than I expected,” said LeBlanc. “We lost nine games and only three of those were by more than two goals. We were in almost every game … It’s exciting to have a lot of these guys coming back.”