Peabody boys soccer looks to keep up success

The Peabody boys soccer team has heard this story before: Graduate a ton of talented players?not know what to expect during the season?and yet find a way to be successful.For head coach Stan McKeen, that is the scenario that again faces his club as it heads into the 2010 season.Last year, the Tanners went to the wire with Salem in a race for the Northeastern Conference/North title, claiming the title in the season’s final week. Peabody finished with a 12-2-4 regular season mark but was unceremoniously bounced from the Division 1 North tourney by Cambridge in the opening round.For the Tanners to return to that stellar record this season, McKeen knows he will need to get a lot of big efforts from a lot of new faces.”I really think that we are going to be able to hold our own on defense and in goal,” McKeen said. “The big question is if we can put the ball in the net. We lost a lot of offense due to graduation.”That loss McKeen speaks of came in the form of 13 seniors who led the program consistently to the top of the NEC. Two of the big losses came in forwards Kyle McGlone and Matt Rodgers, who did the bulk of Peabody’s goal scoring last year.”Kyle and Matt had like two-thirds of our offense last year,” McKeen said. “That is really hard to replace. We need some other kids to step up there for us.”One spot where Peabody was not hit by the graduation bug is in the midfield as the Tanners return the bulk of their starters there. Luke Finkelstein and Mike Chiappini headline the group and will be joined by Nick Mello; Colin Mahoney and Alec Sekera.McKeen looks for Sekera and Chiappini to help pick up the scoring along with the addition of talented sophomores Sean Bernardo and Vlasi Duni.”We have lost this many kids before and done well after,” McKeen said. “We are just hoping that this nucleus along with some JV players who have come up and played for us will be able to bring us a league championship.”Another glaring hole the Tanners will have to fill is along the back line, where they will replace nearly their entire defense along with goalkeeper Jason Ryan. Zack DaSilva and Cliff McKeon represent the lone returnees to one of the better defenses around a year ago.McKeen had 80 players come out when practice began and will carry three full teams of freshman, JV and varsity players.”I really hate to cut kids but these were the best numbers that we’ve had in a couple of years,” McKeen said.Peabody also will be playing in a newly realigned NEC North as Danvers and Marblehead join Beverly, Salem and Gloucester to form the new division. The Tanners also have games with Classical, English and Revere from the NEC South.”This is really going to be a tough league with the realignment,” McKeen said. “The schedule is a big hurdle for us. It’s like we are playing a good team nearly every game.”One of the things that has McKeen concerned is a quirk in the schedule that will see his team not open the regular season until Sept. 16.”That’s the tough thing when you’re laying off and not playing a lot of competition,” McKeen said.