By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

RESERVE — East St. John came away with a pair of ties at the St. Michael Holiday Soccer Tournament, 0-0 against Plaquemine and 1-1 against West Feliciana Dec. 27

Ryan Denet scored the lone goal for ESJ in the West Feliciana game.

The Wildcats’ record is now 3-7-3 this season.

“We’ve made some progress,” East St. John coach Paul Dupuy said. “We just had a hard loss to Destrehan, and that was our only major setback recently. I felt like we did a nice job bouncing back from losing a game we had a chance to win.

“We’ve had some of our JV guys up getting time with the varsity for parts of the season. The program’s growing, and hopefully we can get to full strength for the stretch run.”

Junior Trendon Amerson, Dupuy said, has recovered from an early season medical setback and has emerged as a standout midfielder for the Wildcats.

“He’s got a lot of skill,” Dupuy said.

“He’s been playing really well for us. He’s a guy that’s going to get a lot more time going forward. It bodes well that he’s developing well. He’s really taking ownership of that position.”

Avery Williams is in the midst of another strong season after standing out in 2013.

“He’s giving us good effort both offensively and defensively. He’s very versatile,” Dupuy said. “When you have someone who really stands out in both phases, that’s extremely valuable.”

The Wildcats return to district action Tuesday at home against South Lafourche, with both boys and girls games scheduled.

The girls will begin at 5 p.m. with the boys game immediately following.