By RYAN ARENA

‘Lobservateur

East St. John went 2-1 over the weekend at Dutchtown’s Bayou Invitational soccer tournament, defeating Live Oak and Ellender but falling to McKinley.

DeChris Strong scored four goals over the course of the weekend to lead the Wildcats.

ESJ coach Paul Dupuy says that with only four starters returning to begin the season, his team is rebuilding, but starting to come together.

“There are a lot of fresh faces out there for us,” said Dupuy. “We’ve had some frustrating stretches, but we’ve done some pretty good things so far.”

The team began tournament play Friday with a 2-0 win over Live Oak. Strong and Antonio Guerrero each scored in the win.

Dupuy said it wasn’t a dominant performance, but that he’d take the win.

“It was kind of a struggle. They gave us problems,” Dupuy said. “We got better as play went on and managed to pull it out.”

ESJ dropped its next game later on Friday, a 4-1 decision to McKinley.

Strong scored his team’s lone goal, as ESJ fell behind at halftime and couldn’t overcome a three-goal deficit.

“We made some adjustments and played them pretty evenly in the second half,” said Dupuy. “That allowed us to keep up with them, but we were just a little too far behind. McKinley has really seen its program blossom over the past couple of years.”

One adjustment in that second half served Dupuy’s team well in its 2-0 win over Ellender on Saturday – he would move Andrew Alexander from the goalkeeper spot into the field and inserted Marco Barrera into the net.

Barrera played well, helping his team record a shutout, while Alexander added another skilled player into the field.

“(Barrera) played great against Ellender. He stepped up,” said Dupuy.

Strong scored both goals for ESJ (2-3).