By Ron Brocato

Brother Martin’s soccer team is looking to add a third star to the painted shield on the locker room wall.

To accomplish that task will require the Crusaders to defeat 13-time state champion and No. 1 seed Jesuit on Saturday, Feb. 28, in the Division I state championship match in Hammond. It’s not an impossible dream for the Crusaders, as far as the team members are concerned. And although they lost an earlier match to the Blue Jays, 4-2, Coach Matt Millet’s charges’ confidence level is high as they put the finishing touches on preparation for their biggest test of the season.

“Yes, I think the kids are pretty confident,” Millet said of his team after they eliminated four playoff teams, three by shutout victories, then survived a furious rally by Denham Springs to earn a berth in the championship match via a 4-3 victory on Feb. 21.

“As a group, they don’t get too up or too down. They just take things as they come, even-keeled and get back to business, probably the opposite of the kind of guy I am. I’m like fire and brimstone all the time, which I think gets people going.” Together, the players’ demeanor and the coach’s urging have produced a season record of 22-3-1 and earned the Crusaders the No. 2 playoff seed.

Their 7:30 p.m. opponent at Southeastern Louisiana’s Strawberry Stadium has yet to lose a match this season, boasting a 22-0-2 record. Brother Martin and Jesuit have met twice in the state tournament finals, with the Crusaders winning in 2000 and Jesuit victorious in 2002.

Millet sizes up the title match thusly: “Jesuit is a high-energy team with five really good players who love to go forward. They set the pace, and those five move the ball around well.”

The last time the two met, Brother Martin started well, but faded late in the match. “I thought we did well for a half, then ran out of steam at the end. So I’m thinking about changing a couple of things tactfully from the first game, but I’m not sure what’s going to look like,” Millet noted.

But his Crusaders, who are coming off a heart-stopping win over Denham Springs in the semifinal round, made an impression on the coach.

Brother Martin scored its first goal just 54 seconds into the match at Pan American Stadium off the foot of Wyatt Hutchins, the team’s top scorer with 26 goals. Everett Walker and Hudson Cammatata followed Hutchins’ lead and quickly opened a 3-0 lead before the No. 3 seed rallied to tie the score.

“When that happened, I thought we were a bit naïve about how we dealt with their momentum swing,” Millet said. “I thought we battered them for 70 minutes, which surprised me because they are a good team.

“Then, they tied the score. I just needed to get to overtime to catch our breath, and near the end of the game, I told my assistant, ‘We just need to get out of this because they’re going to score the winner.’

And to the coaches’ relief, his team denied the visitors another point through the remainder of the match, enabling junior Nathan Wellman to score the winning goal with a few ticks over the final two remaining minutes.

Wellman’s winner was assisted by Cammarata, who found his teammate in an open area. Wellman’s moves created a one-on-one situation with a lone Yellow Jacket defender, whom he outmaneuvered to a goaltender who was in a position to stop the goal.

“I was pretty shocked when we came back and created that chance to win,” Millet continued. “It showed a lot of resiliency, which is something we’ve been talking about all season. You can’t teach that to a kid, how to grind through an uncomfortable situation until they are really in that situation and get through it.

“And so I’m hoping that the last minutes of that game help us to deal with that adversity, because on Saturday we are going to have adversity for sure,” Millet said.

Junior Collin Wimberley (8) changes direction to get the Denham Springs defense out of position as he prepares to make a pass to a teammate. The action took place in the Crusaders 4-3 win at Pan American Stadium.