• Wes Bloomquist •
• Originally published January 7, 2009 at 10:57 p.m., updated January 7, 2009 at 10:57 p.m.

With less than a minute to play, the Memorial Vipers soccer team looked poised to advance to regionals last season. Instead, San Antonio Churchill scored a late goal and won in a Class 5A area shootout to end the Vipers season with a 15-4-2 record.

A year later, with a different head coach, a new goalkeeper and the loss of their leading scorer, the Vipers haven't lost their goal to bounce back from the disappointing loss.

"I think we'll be able to win district again, but making it to regionals is the goal," said Memorial senior Austin Elsik, who was a District 27-5A first-team defender as a junior. "We haven't been there in four years so that's our goal. Once you get there, anyone has the ability to win state."

Memorial opens its season at 5 p.m. Thursday against San Antonio Southwest at Smithson Valley's Comal Cup. Southwest handed the Vipers their only district loss last season, but is not a part of District 27-5A this year.

At coach, Memorial is once again under the direction of Tim Eaton after John Brown resigned. Eaton was the assistant head coach last season and knows replacing goal keeper Seth Prochaska and forward Trey Boyd isn't going to be easy. That doesn't mean it's impossible though.

"It's a little different without Seth in goal for us, but Ethan (Garza) is doing a good job of learning what it's going to take," Eaton said. "He'll keep getting better as the season goes on. We have good balance and depth with speed, so that's going to help the team and him. I think we're going to have a lot of good opportunities to score this year."

Despite the loss of key seniors, Memorial returns a good number of players from its district championship team. Mark Rojas and Mike Rojas are returning as defenders, along with midfielder Luke Tibbitts and forward Jordan Sewalt.

Those players remember the loss to Churchill and have made it their goal to atone.

"We were disappointed in the playoffs last year and we want to make it to regionals," Tibbetts said. "We want to put together a season like last year, but make it farther in the playoffs. We're going to have to be more offensive this year because our offense isn't as strong as it was last season. We have a good core in the middle, so that should pull us through."

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