By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

BOUTTE — East St. John collected its second district win of the season on Friday night, edging out rival Hahnville 2-1 in a District 6-I game.

DeChris Strong’s goal with 15 minutes left to play broke a 1-1 tie and lifted the Wildcats to an eventual victory.

“We won a hard fought game tonight,” said East St. John coach Paul Dupuy. “It was real physical. I’m not sure our young guys know yet how to deal with that. But I think you could really see the level of skill and potential that our guys have in how they played.”

Fifteen minutes into play, Andrew Alexander gave East St. John a 1-0 lead when he nailed a shot from 35 yards away.

“He placed it perfectly. It was one of the best shots he’s taken this year, if not the best,” said Dupuy.

Hahnville rallied to tie the game in the 25th minute of the first half though, and the teams went into halftime tied.

“The way we started, you’d think we were about to roll to victory,” said Dupuy. “We moved the ball around very well. But we didn’t get a lot of shots off of that movement. That might be because they had the edge in physicality.”

Then Strong broke through and ESJ (6-13-3, 2-6) had another win in its pocket.

Dupuy says he can feel a breakthrough coming for his team, but that it will take work to realize that as a reality.

“Our skill level showed tonight. It’s one of the bright things about this team … even with so many guys new to the game, you can see such potential.

“It’s a matter of getting them to play as a unit now.”