By Warren Arceneaux

No. 3 St. Louis Catholic cruised past No. 14 Leesville 9-1 behind four goals from Jackson Avery Tuesday night in a Division III regional round boys soccer playoff game.

St. Louis will host No. 6 St. Michael in the quarterfinal round. The Knights advanced with an 8-1 win over No. 11 Haynes Academy.

Avery and Adam Freman each scored two goals in the first half to give the Saints (15-3-4) a 4-0 halftime lead.

Avery opened the scoring in the 8th minute, running on to a long through ball from Landon Daughdril and curling a shot into the lower left corner of the goal.

Foreman scored the next two, first on a tap-in from point-blank range, then on a long, curling shot over the keeper’s head.

Avery capped the scoring with a low, powerful shot from the left side of the penalty box after dribbling past a pair of defenders.

Leesville (14-5-1) had several scoring chances with Saints keeper Noah Ellender making two saves on short range shots off corner kicks. The Campus Cats had a long-range shot hit the crossbar.

Avery scored twice again in the second self to push his season tally to 36 goals.

“He brings leadership on and off the pitch,” St. Louis head coach Jason Oertling said of Avery. “He can score with his left and right foot. It is great to see him rewarded for all that he puts into soccer. I know all the guys are happy for him because of how hard he works.”

Harrison Hurt, Miller McFatter and Jacob Wing also scored in the second half for St. Louis.

Quim Allepuz scored for the Wampus Cats.

“I thought we were really aggressive in our attack. We used our outsides, which we have been talking about,” Oertling said.

“We have been talking about putting a full game together,” he continued. “Our aggressiveness, our passing … that was our best game of the year. Defensively our shape and communication were good. We played well despite allowing a goal.”