Gabriel Hernandez of New Iberia, right, keeps the ball under pressure from a Comeaux player on Friday. NISH beat the Spartans in a shootout. - Lee Ball / The Daily Iberian

New Iberia Senior High played through an expected letdown following Tuesday’s big road upset of fourth-ranked St. Thomas More, beating Comeaux in a penalty kick shootout Friday night in frigid temperatures on the Jackets Pitch to stay in position to claim at least a share of the district soccer title.

NISH survived a late goal by a scrappy Spartans team and two scoreless overtimes before converting all five of their kicks in the shootout to take the win. The Jackets improved to 15-7-2 overall and 5-1 in district with two league games left. If New Iberia wins both it claims at least a share of the title with STM, which also has only one loss in district.

“We’ve known for a while we’d have to win out,” said New Iberia coach Kevin Hardy of his team’s district title hopes. “Carencro’s going to be very important Tuesday night. They’re a better team than Comeaux. We like where we are right now.”

As has been the case for the past few years, the penalty kick shootout played to one of New Iberia’s strengths. Hardy said that early each season, the team has a competition to see who the best 10 penalty kickers on the squad are, and once that is determined, those 10 comprise the shootout kickers the rest of the season.

“It’s up to them to practice on their own,” said Hardy. “There’s some pressure there. They don’t want to be the one to miss. We expect them to be 90 percent (accurate). There’s always the goalie who makes the right guess on a kick.

“It’s been very successful for us since we started that. I can’t remember losing a penalty kick shootout since we started the program.”

That held true Friday after the teams finished regulation tied 1-1, despite a hefty advantage for NISH in offensive opportunities and shots on goal.

Brandon Labiche started the shootout by successfully putting the ball into the lower left corner of the net, and after Comeaux converted its first opportunity, Colby Delahoussaye made the second penalty kick for NISH, hitting the lower right corner for the goal.

Comeaux’s second kicker was high and right on his attempt, giving the Jackets the edge that they took advantage with successful PKs by Gabriel Hernandez, Ryan Melancon and Zach Escuriex. Escuriex’s kick was the clincher after Comeaux got its next two, placing the shootout out of reach for the Spartans.

“It was a dogfight,” said Hardy. “I expected us to have a letdown, but the other team had a great effort.”

NISH struggled especially on defense in the first half, he said, but that might have been expected after a tough defensive effort against St. Thomas More the previous game.

“I didn’t think it was one of our better defensive efforts,” said Hardy. “We mishandled the ball a few times and let them have some opportunities.”

Escuriex scored in the first five minutes of the game for NISH off a throw-in from Delahoussaye, and that goal nearly stood up for the entire game. The Yellow Jackets had several other scoring chances in the first half, including a shot by Melancon from the left of the small box that just sailed right of the goal at the 22-minute mark.

Comeaux missed a couple of scoring opportunities in the first five minutes of the second half when NISH goalie Jacques Bourque made a leaping save at the 35:50 mark, then knocked a corner kick away moments later.

New Iberia finished with a 28-6 shots-on-goal advantage, and had nine corner kicks to Comeaux’s six. Bourque made six saves.

“I thought we dominated the second half as far as putting more pressure on them than they put on us,” said Hardy, who credited co-head coach Casey Friend for another successful gameplan.

“We just had a little trouble putting the ball in the back of the net. (Comeaux) could’ve scored a few times too, but I think we had scarier opportunities.”

A goal in the second half was disallowed because NISH was offside, and a crossing pass that sailed in front of the goal was missed by a couple of Jacket attackers, and the score stayed 1-0 until about the 2:20 mark when a throw-in by Comeaux’s Andrew Case was headed in by Conner Landry to tie the score.

Delahoussaye almost gave NISH the win in stoppage time with a penalty kick that hit the right goal post.

The Jackets had a chance to win in the first overtime when a header bounded off the crossbar at around the 2:25 mark. A shot by Hernandez went over the goal in the second minute of the second overtime, and NISH missed a couple of chances on corner kicks in the late going of the second OT as well, sending the game to the shootout.