Early in the year, I published a story on the soccer team’s rough start.

The Pattonville boys’ varsity soccer team has been having a hard time starting out this season. This is a stark contrast to the past two years as they began runs to winning District championship titles in 2016 and 2017.

Their current record is 1-2 with a win over Lafayette and a loss to Francis Howell North and Liberty (Wentzville).

Since then, the team performed much better. The team finished the season with a 12-11 record and was 7-3 over the last 10 regular season games. Another high note, senior Louie Perez broke the school’s 10-year-old record for most goals scored in a single season.

In the initial article, head coach Marc Christian expressed concern for his defense. He had his strongest defender Ben Morlen out due to a surgery-requiring hip injury.

“Ben was the cornerstone of our defense.” 

Since then, Christian saw a key step-up made by another junior, Will Basta.

“Basta is now playing centerback,” Christain said.

The team has also seen improved play by sophomore Daniel Enberg and junior John Lewis.

As for junior Nick Derleth, he’s back where he belongs.

Christian is taking drastic measures to make up for the loss of Morlen’s defense.

“I’m gonna move my best player Nick [Derleth] from midfield to the backline.”

Derleth was back on the attack, scoring 9 goals and dishing out 15 assists for a total of 33 points.

“We knew we had a tough schedule starting out, but some of the players I was iffy about stepped up big time.”

These players stepping up have helped the team out big time.

They advanced to play in the District championship game for the third year in a row.

In 2016 and 2017, the Pirates left the game victorious, but this time they fell to De Set this year by the score of 1-0.