Eagles hoping to defend title

Serra Catholic lost its top two goal scorers from last year to graduation.

The Serra Catholic boys soccer team is hoping to repeat as champions of a realigned section.

The Eagles captured the section title by going 12-5 overall and 9-1 in the conference. They won eight straight games and 11 of 12 in the midway point of last season.

After losing key contributors AJ Mejalli and Collin Holmes to graduation, head coach Chad Bruns is excited to see who is going to replace his top two goal scorers. They combined for 28 of the team’s 45 goals last season.

“It’s definitely going to be more of a mixed effort this season,” Bruns said. “Luke Perez is someone I look at as a key player on that side of the ball. He’s shown offensive skill on this team for a while, and just because we had so many players who were capable of playing center-mid, that we had the luxury of putting him (Perez) on the outside-mid, but I expect him to take a huge jump this season.”

Serra Catholic also faces a reshaped landscape in its realigned section. The Eagles are part of Section 3-1A, which includes Aquinas Academy, Bishop Canevin, Brentwood, Carlynton and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. This realignment could be more competitive than ever.

“It will certainly be a challenge,” Bruns said. “With a younger team, it’s just making sure that everyone is solid on their fundamentals and making sure our passing game is alive and well. If you can consistently make those 10-yard passes and have the vision to keep the attack going, that’s when you’ll have success on the field. We might not be on-paper favorites, but I like our chances.”

While seniors Caden Bauer, Caden Taylor, Luke Perez, and Julian McLaughlin are expected to lead Serra Catholic, Bruns is also paying close attention to the development of younger players who are poised to make an impact. Among them are sophomores Nate Petty and Brayden Graham, who are stepping into larger roles this year.

“I’m interested to see what Nate Petty and Brayden Graham are going to do this year,” Bruns said. “Both of them are sophomores who are just stepping into their roles and they’ve both shown a ton of improvement.

“They showed flashes of offensive capabilities as freshmen last year, but now they’ll have more of a chance to put their skills to use. It’ll be exciting to see them take their next steps forward.”

Caden Bauer and Caden Taylor will both be used differently this season after anchoring the defense in past years.

“I’m also excited for Caden Bauer and Caden Taylor, who have been my leaders for the past few years,” Bruns said. “They have been the center of our defense over the past few seasons, but they are both capable of impacting the game on offense as well. I think there, it’ll be up to the coaching staff to implement different strategies and look to get them more involved on offense.”