By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — For a month, East St. John had searched for the offense to match its defense.

In the fourth quarter of its matchup with South Lafourche, the Wildcats found it —and not a moment too soon.

Nigel Anderson’s 22-yard touchdown pass to Xavier Lewis with four seconds remaining tied things up and Eric Joseph booted the deciding extra point to lift East St. John to a thrilling 35-34 victory over the Tarpons , earning ESJ its first victory of the season.

“It was one heck of a game,” said East St. John coach Phillip Banko. “Beautiful pass from Nigel and a fantastic catch by Xavier Lewis. He just got those feet inbounds.’

“I’m so extremely happy for our guys. They’ve been hearing the doubters and the bad talk about us for the past three weeks. What those people don’t understand is that those games prepared us for tonight, for our district.”

The late game dramatics were set up when South Lafourche (1-3, 0-1) scored on a Dominick Fillinich touchdown pass to Harvey Allen and converted a two-point play to make it 34-28 with 1:28 left.

Lewis and Anderson rotated at quarterback, Anderson playing the position for the first time this season. Anderson tallied 184 total yards and three touchdowns while Lewis finished with 182 total yards and two touchdowns in an option-centered attack.

ESJ (1-3, 1-0) finished with 355 yards of total offense. South Lafourche finished with 385.

The Wildcats led 14-7 at halftime and 21-7 early in the third quarter on Kyle Patterson’s 16-yard scoring reception.

Lewis set up ESJ’s first touchdown — his own 2-yard run — with a 56-yard scramble.

Fillinich finished with 253 yards and three scores through the air.