Peabody boys soccer has unfinished business

For longtime Peabody boys soccer coach Stan McKeen, the 2013 season was one that had plenty of highs during the regular season and then the ultimate of lows in the opening round of the Division 1 North tournament.After the Tanners finished the regular season at 12-1-5 and with another Northeastern Conference title, there was hope of a deep run in the postseason. Those hopes, however, came to a screeching halt when Malden stunned Peabody in a 1-0 overtime defeat on home turf.For this season?s Tanners, McKeen doesn?t mince words when he talks about what could possibly happen for a team that will have a remarkable 15 seniors on its varsity roster.?This is our year to try and do something,” McKeen said. “If there ever was a time for us to have a run, this is it. If we don?t make a dent this year, who knows? But these kids really want to win.”The Tanners will be led by their four senior captains: Ben Manoogian, Christian Morales, Connor Wolff and Joao Correia. All four have seen plenty of playing time over the last three seasons.Manoogian and Correia will lead the Peabody frontline as they will try to help ignite a Tanner offense that struggled mightily at times last season.?Scoring was our biggest problem last season. We really had a problem putting the ball in the net,” McKeen said. “But with Ben, Joao and Evangelos (Andreas), we hope we can have some good production up there.”In the midfield and on defense, Peabody returns an abundance of highly skilled and experienced players.Leading the midfield will be Wolff, who will be joined by Kenny Sawyer, Bobby Caproni, Lucas Amirault and Andreas.?Bobby is like a runaway time bomb out there and Lucas has great skills and sees the field real well,” McKeen said. “We should be good right across the middle.”It wasn?t a coincidence last season that some of the Tanners? struggles during the regular season came when Morales was lost for a period of time to a knee injury. This season, Morales leads a backline that returns three starters and got a boost from the return of a fourth from a year away from the sport.Alex Tisi and Nick Bettencourt got plenty of minutes on defense for Peabody last year and they return to join Morales and Kevin Bena, who played football last season after two years of soccer previously, to form a rock-solid backline.Perhaps the only question mark for the Tanners comes in the net, where Peabody has to replace longtime starter Rob Smith, who surrendered just over one goal a game last season. Seniors Kevin Lebel and Fagner Cubero-Coelho have spent the preseason battling for the No. 1 position but McKeen says neither has the edge entering the regular season.Peabody has an extra week to get ready for the year as it doesn?t open until Sept. 9 against Classical, who McKeen expects to be right there in the race for the NEC North title.?We really want to win the league. But Revere is going to be really tough competition,” McKeen said.Peabody also has tough non-league games against Somerville, Acton-Boxboro and Billerica. The Tanners lost an out-of-conference game this year with the return of Saugus to the NEC.?We have all the experience. Now we just need to produce on the field,” McKeen said.