Last year's early exit fuels Laurel to aim high

Last season, Laurel High's boys soccer team felt it could be their time to win a regional championship. However, after a 10-5 regular season that earned them the No. 10 seed in the 4A regional playoffs, Laurel's season ended with a bitter 1-0 loss to second-seeded Parkdale in the second round of the playoffs.

Players have put that playoff loss and last year behind them and have focused on the promise of this year's team. Some of the senior leaders say this could be Laurel's best team in years, despite their youth and the loss of many seniors from last year's team.

Some of the players even feel this season could be perfect.

"Last year we thought we could really do it (go undefeated), but we had some little errors that cost us games and we are working on those things this year," senior center back Loyc Ngatou said. "This year I really think we could have a clean sheet — undefeated. I don't expect to lose any games this year. We might be a young team, but we can do it."

Although this season's team may be young, senior center midfielder Valere Songong feels there are some special players in that group.

"We've had a lot of young players come try out for us, but there is a lot of talent in that group," Songong said. "With a lot of young kids, they just have to get physical, because our team is full of young players. We only have about four seniors this year compared to like nine or 10 on last year's team."

Although going undefeated may seem like a bit of a stretch, the team does hope to improve on last year's success. However, there are still some holes to fill before the season opens against Pallotti High on Thursday, Sept. 8.

"The only thing that might slow us down is that we are still working on finding a goal scorer. Hopefully someone will step up," Songong said.

Behind the leadership of Eric Ferguson, who is in his seventh season as head coach, Laurel will play an organized game that includes emphasis on the midfielders creating scoring chances for the forwards. Songong says Ferguson preaches to the forwards to shoot more and create more opportunities.

"If we shoot the ball on target we can score a lot of goals this season," Songong said.