Two parish soccer teams advance in the playoffs

The first round of the soccer playoffs hit Ascension parish last week, and two teams survived and advanced to regionals.

On the boy's side, Dutchtown will represent the parish and as for the girls, East Ascension will try to squeeze into the quarterfinals.

When the LHSAA brackets were released last Monday and Tuesday, five total teams made the playoff field. For the boys, two Ascension squads made the cut in St. Amant and Dutchtown.

The Gators earned the highest seed of the two at No. 16. They drew a first-round matchup against No. 17 Baton Rouge High--a district foe that had split games with them during the regular season.

In the second matchup, St. Amant escaped with a 3-2 victory. This time around, they were the ones on the wrong side of a 3-2 decision.

The game remained scoreless up until the 38th minute when Baton Rouge's Logan Bueche knocked in a goal to give the Bulldogs the 1-0 halftime lead.

The Gators were able to respond right at the start of the second half as Trent Cutrer scored a goal at the 42nd minute. Briggs Bourgeois was responsible for the assist.

However, the match didn't remain tied for very long. Baton Rouge's Grant Odenwald exploded for two goals in the span of just seven minutes to regain the lead at 3-1.

St. Amant tried to make a rally. At the 53rd minute, Bourgeois dished out another assist--this time to Hector Rodriquez. It cut the deficit to 3-2, but St. Amant could never tie the game again.

Baton Rouge was able to salt away the victory, and the parish's top-seeded boy's team officially ended their season at 14-7-3 overall.

While the Gators got upset in the opening round, it was Dutchtown that pulled the upset in their first-round matchup.

The Griffins headed into the playoffs as a No. 20 seed and had the tall task of having to make the long journey up north to face No. 13 West Monroe.

Like Baton Rouge, Dutchtown pulled off a 3-2 upset, but their win came in a thrilling overtime affair.

It pushed them through to the regional round where they'll get a home playoff matchup with fourth-seeded Madeville on Thursday night. Mandeville comes into the contest a very impressive 17-2-3.

On the girl's side, all three Division-I teams made the playoffs, but only one was able to reach regionals.

St. Amant opened up the postseason play as they went on the road to face third-seeded powerhouse Dominican.

Dominican lived up to the seeding as they blanked the Lady Gators, 4-0. St. Amant ended the year with a 9-12 record.

Dutchtown earned a No. 16 seeding and hosted a first-round game against No. 17 Terrebonne.

Like the boy's team, they played in an overtime thriller. Unfortunately, they fell, 2-1, after Terrebonne's Stevie Guin scored the game-winning goal.

Dutchtown finished the year 17-9-2.

In addition to being the highest-seeded soccer team in the parish at No. 15, East Ascension was the only girl's team to advance to the regional round.

The Lady Spartans hosted a playoff matchup against Lafayette on Friday night.

The game was a classic that was 2-2 at the end of regulation. When neither team was able to score in the first overtime, the game went into double-OT.

That's when East Ascension was able to earn the win by besting Lafayette in penalty kicks, 4-2.

With the win, the Lady Spartans were able to join the Dutchtown boys in the second round.

They drew a second-round matchup on the road against second-seeded St. Scholastica. St. Scholastica finished the regular season 16-1-3.