Senior defender Matthew Clay was all smiles during NISH's 8-0 win over Westgate. 

It only took 40 minutes for the New Iberia Senior High boys soccer team to secure a mercy-rule victory over cross-town rival Westgate in Wednesday’s senior night contest.

The Yellow Jackets are flying high this season, with impressive district performances against Lafayette High and Barbe. With an 8-8-4 record, NISH sits just inside the playoff window in Division I and could secure a first round game close to home with a good performance against Acadiana on Thursday.

Amidst the late-season stress, the NISH team was able to have some fun when they hosted Westgate. Fernando Ayala opened the scoring with a goal in the 4th minute, followed by a penalty kick goal in the 7th minute by Kade Gary.

Zachary Tilbury added a brace of goals in the 15th and 17th minutes followed by a goal from Kolbe Louviere in the 19th minute to give NISH a 5-0 lead.

With several seniors already on the scoresheet, the Yellow Jackets moved up the senior defenders. Senior fullback Joseph Godoy and senior goalkeeper Bailey Lee scored a goal each before Giovanni Bertoldi smashed in the final goal in the 40th minute.

NISH head coach Hale Trahan said that the victory was a great way to honor the seniors, especially given their previous performance against Westgate.

“We came into this game knowing that our last performance against Westgate wasn’t particularly good,” Trahan explained. “Being that we have Acadiana tomorrow night, I told the boys that I really wanted to control this game and use it as a launch game for our last district game tomorrow night.”

In his first season as head coach, Trahan said that there were a few growing pains with the senior class, but praised their growth as athletes and men.

“I think there were the normal challenges that you face with any group of 17- and 18-year-old boys,” he said. “Whether it was emotions or pride or all those other things, I think they’ve all adapted pretty well to what I’ve asked them to do and embraced the character traits that I’ve tried to instill in them to become better men as well as soccer players.”

Trahan also praised his seniors for their dedication to keeping the standards high at NISH.

“I think that they’ve put in a lot of work to get to this point,” Trahan said of his graduating class. “We’ve had our ups and downs this year, but we’ve had a lot of quality performances. When you graduate a class like we did last year, sometimes it’s hard to rebound from that. The mark of a successful program is consistency every year. Whether you’re a little up or a little down, you should always be in the conversation.”

The Yellow Jackets are the No. 30 team in Division I following their win over Westgate.

Playoff pairings are scheduled to be announced on Jan. 31 with first round contests being played no later than Feb. 5.