By Ryan Arena
L’Observateur

After a strong late-season run last year, St. Charles Catholic began its 2014-15 campaign with a tough, but encouraging, loss to perennial contender St. Paul’s, 1-0 in the team’s season opener this week.

The Wolves scored the game’s lone goal 20 minutes in and rendered the Comet offense unable to make a game-tying counterstrike.

St. Charles coach Sean LeBlanc said the Comets weren’t near full strength, but gave a gutty accounting of themselves.

“We had no subs and unfortunately lost one of our starters due to a concussion,” LeBlanc said.

“We had to play down a man for the last 15 minutes. But all in all, playing against a team that’s ranked in the Top 10 in Class 4A, I thought we played well. We have a lot of senior leadership on our team.”

Defensively, the Comets developed a reputation as a stingy group last season.

That appears to have translated to this year’s squad, anchored in the back by 2013-14 All-District goalkeeper Matt Templet.

“We have a lot of experience on our back line,” LeBlanc said. “I have a lot of confidence in that group. They’re proven.”

LeBlanc said the Comets were a bit shaky to begin the game against St. Paul’s, but settled down as the contest rolled on.

“We looked like a deer caught in headlights early,” he said.

“At halftime, the message was just to settle down. This is a long season and we’re just 35 minutes into it. We’ve got another 20 games to go.”