Better than before
The Seneca Valley boys lacrosse team has two big holes to fill.
But the Raiders appear up to the challenge.
Gone from last year's 16-5 squad are midfielder Peet Poillon (48 goals, 51 assists) and goalie Rob Beauseigneur (4.9 goals against per game).
But this year's team is eager to leave its mark.
"The players are highly motivated," said first-year head coach Dan Soper, who served as the team's offensive coordinator the past three seasons. "They will not be satisfied with the same level of success of last year's team."
That's saying something, considering Seneca Valley made it to the Western Pennsylvania Scholastic Lacrosse Association's Division I semifinals a season ago, where it fell to Upper St. Clair 14-10.
Replacing Poillon, the league MVP in 2005, will be a team-effort, Soper said.
"Last year, it was usually just one, two or three guys scoring for us," he said. "On Monday, we had six different players score for us in a scrimmage."
Leaders on the offensive side of the field should include senior midfielders Sean Cross and Will Robbins.
As for goalie, the Raiders are looking to a converted midfielder, sophomore Ryan Mayeda, to man the net in 2006.
"With him being just a sophomore, you would think that he has a long way to go from a mental standpoint," Soper said. "But he has went to so many camps and watched tapes of great goaltenders, it's not going to be as big a hole for us as it might seem."
It never hurts a young goalie to have a great defender playing in front of him, and Mayeda will have that in senior Mike Johnson, who has been a mainstay for the Raiders since his freshman season.
In all, the Raiders will have nine seniors taking the field.
"All of them played varsity last year," said Soper. "They know what is expected and how to get things done."
The Raiders again will be competing in Division I, the highest level in the WPSLA. They will be playing in the Northern Division with Sewickley Academy, North Allegheny, Pittsburgh Central Catholic, Pine-Richland and Shady Side Academy.
ButlerThe Golden Tornado are coming off a dreadful season.But a former player is hoping to bring respect back to the Butler boys program.After a strong performance in Division III in 2004, Butler made the move to Division II a season ago.The result was an 0-16 record and the team was outscored 217-39."In 2004, we were almost all seniors, so we graduated our whole starting lineup and most of our top reserves," said first-year coach Rich Gigliotti, a defenseman on the 2004 team.This year's squad does return last season's top scorer in Zach Reiser, who scored 12 goals last year."He's an emotional player and one of our captains," said Gigliotti. "He's very athletic."A newcomer who will be counted on will be freshman Justin O'Donnell."He's played for the past three years in the middle school and junior high programs," said Gigliotti. "He's very fast and has good stickhandling skills."Top defenseman include juniors Mike Horseman and Chris Blakely and sophomore Nathan Cleary.Junior Matt McCarrier will be in net for the Tornado.Butler will play in the WPSLA's Division II North, with North Hills, Shaler, Hampton, Kiski School, Erie McDowell, Vincentian Academy, Taylor Allderdice and Erie."I would be disappointed if we were under .500 this year," said Gigliotti. "There's too much talent on this team."
