By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE – St. Charles Catholic came up just short of nailing down its first victory of the season on the soccer field, as host Haynes rallied from a 3-1 deficit to force a 3-3 tie in non-district action Wednesday.
Daniel Jaubert, Dalton Landry and Andrew Rodrigue each scored goals for the Comets, who are now 0-2-2 this season.
“We made some mental errors. It was mental, mental, mental for us,” said St. Charles coach Sean LeBlanc. “We kept giving up silly fouls and it cost us.”
LeBlanc was pleased with the team’s offensive showing, however. The Comet defense has been stout this season, but the past game suggests some scoring punch could be on the way.
“I thought we did well. We’ve been concentrating on our attacks,” said LeBlanc. “Getting three in the net is nice, but at the same time we’ve got to put it all together.”
That last part is what LeBlanc is most concerned with finding over the next few games – SCC will face Holy Cross on Dec. 23, then compete in a Baton Rouge tournament on Dec. 27-28.
For the Comets to get where they need to be, he said, they cannot rely on just one aspect of the team to carry them.
“We need to play a compete game,” he said. “Strong defensively, strong offensively, instead of doing one and not the other or vice versa. We still haven’t done those together.”
******
The Comet girls team, meanwhile, is rebuilding this season under new head coach Travis Trepagnier.
The team fell to 0-3 with a close loss last week to Christian Life, a 2-1 game that saw the Comets’ Corrin Drexel score her team’s goal.
St. Charles changed coaches before last season after the school and longtime coach Don Peyton parted ways, then again after its start.
The Comets bounced back to make a district surge and reached the playoffs after three late victories behind the leg of senior Jalynn Johnson.
But with Johnson gone and SCC is starting over in a new system, Trepagnier said it will be a process.
“It was tough on them last year,” said Trepagnier. “A team needs stability. I hope to stay around for awhile.”
The Comets were set to enter the season with five seniors, but that number dropped to four after Elise Jeandrone suffered a knee injury in preseason practice. Remaining are seniors Kaitlyn Lemoine, Julia Torres, Ashley Marchese and Tia Giles.
Torres began the season at goalkeeper, but Trepagnier moved her into the field to help jumpstart the team’s offense.
She and Lemoine, the team’s midfielder, have taken charge of the team as its leaders.
“They’re always helping me out and doing whatever they can to help the team,” said Trepagnier. “Julia is more of a quiet leader by example. Kaitlyn’s our most vocal player. She’s not afraid to speak up when we need to correct something.”