By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

RESERVE — Greg Burnett scored the game-winning goal in the 73rd minute of play to lift East St. John to a 2-1 victory over South Lafourche Friday night.

Burnett from close range off a quick pass from Antonio Barrera, immediately striking it home to answer a game-tying score by the Tarpons seven minutes earlier.

“I knew we were tied up and we needed a goal,” Burnett said. “We kept fighting hard. I thank my teammates so much and thank God. We’ve fought through a lot this season and we didn’t have our full team until late in the year.

“I feel like this was the type of game and season we could have had. We played with strength today.”

East St. John (6-10-5) coach Paul Dupuy said his team had struggled to finish matches this season, and was staring at another potential disappointment when South Lafourche’s Jose Carlos Gonzales scored in the 26th minute of the second half.

But Barrera and Burnett combined to answer, and the Wildcats had captured a victory in the clutch.

“We finally finished,” Dupuy said.

“I felt like our guys have played well all season, and late mistakes and letdowns have cost us. (Friday night), we fully responded. We passed it extremely well tonight. You saw some pretty passing tonight.”

East St. John took a 1-0 lead in the first half on Rico Franco’s short-range goal.

Eight minutes into the second half, the Wildcats nearly made it a 2-0 lead when Avery Williams hit the crossbar on a kick.

With less than a minute to play, South Lafourche nearly scored on two different chances: Guillermo Lopez drew a late foul and had a free kick opportunity deep in ESJ territory, but came up empty on his attempt. Gonzales got a late kick off as well, but the ball was booted out of bounds by ESJ to run out the remaining time.

“When we play unselfishly like we did at times here, we have the potential to slice-and-dice a defense,” Dupuy said. “We’ve still got to establish some consistency there. This was a good win for us.”