By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

East St. John recently suffered a pair of tough district losses, falling 10-0 at home to Destrehan on Tuesday, and 10-0 at East Ascension last Friday.

East Ascension (9-7-5, 5-2) maintained its second place position in District 6-I with the win, two matches behind first place Dutchtown.

The Spartans led 3-0 at halftime, and outlasted the outmanned Wildcats in the second half, closing the match out with seven more goals.

East St. John (5-7, 0-7), which has a roster of 21 girls, has been down to 13 in the past two games due to a bevy of injuries. East Ascension was able to utilize its depth to run the Wildcats ragged.

“They always had fresh legs in there,” said East St. John Coach Jason Beber.

East Ascension had over 50 shots on goal, many of which saved by Wildcats’ freshman goalkeeper Terri Franklin.

“She made a bunch of nice saves,” said Beber. “But, you can only save so many of them.”

Destrehan (9-9, 2-5) won its second district match in the same fashion as the Spartans won their fifth, earning a 2-0 halftime advantage and wearing down the wildcats late.

Beber noted the play of sweeper Amanda Tamplain in each match, describing her effort as “tremendous” in light of the pressure opposing teams have put on East St. John.

Beber hopes to get some of his weapons healthy for the final three district matches of the season.

Some good news could be on the way. Leading striker Tia Casadaban was potentially going to be ready for Friday’s match at Hahnville, which fell after press time.