By John Dempsey
Mandeville Soccer Club was more than well represented in the LHSAA State Soccer Finals held at Tad Gormley Stadium in New Orleans on February 25th and 26th. Besides having two MSC, coaches Mike Ortner and Nick Chetta, coaching Saint Scholastica and Northlake Christian School respectively there were numerous MSC and former MSC players on the field. Adrian McIniss played the majority of his club career at Mandeville Soccer Club and Katherine Kuntz played for MSC through her U-18 year and regularly trained at the club in the fall. Katherine was named the Player of the match for the Division I Girls Final and Adrian was named Player of the Match for the Division I Boys Final. Weston Acosta, currently with the U-15 Lakers and only a Freshman at Northlake Christian, played well above what many would expect from a Freshman to earn Player of the Match in the Division III Boys final.

Adrian scored a brilliant goal after cutting the ball back to beat a defender and tied the game with Jesuit at one goal apiece. Kat scored both goals for State Champion Dominican the first coming off her right boot from twenty plus yards out and she curled the second in from a corner kick. Weston played a role in each of the Wolverines three goals. He craftily scored the second off a quick free kick as they cruised to a 3-0 victory. MSC Director of Coaching Shane Jeanfreau said of the awards earned by the current and former Lakers, “Its gratifying to see these players we’ve worked with achieve such heights.”

The award winners and coaches weren’t the only players representing the club in their high school’s respective finals.  Playing for Northlake Christian were MSC players Chad Broussard, Michael Broussard, Cam Broussard, Zack Shaw and Mallory Mele. As for Saint Paul’s and Saint Scholastica virtually all of the players on both rosters play at Mandeville Soccer Club or have played with the club until this year.