Fall Sports Preview: Bishop O'Connell: 'Queens of the Country?'

It’s hard to improve upon near perfection, but that is exactly what the Bishop O’Connell Girl’s Soccer team is trying to do this season, and head coach Alberto Starace says it’s looking good so far.

Last year the Knights went 19-1 and took the WCAC championship with the help of the impressive performance of All-American mid-fielder Natalya Arias, who led the team with 30 goals. The team was ranked first in the Washington Metropolitan Area by the Washington Post and fourth in the U.S. by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

But with the arrival of the new season comes new challenges. Arias’ graduation creates a 30-point gap in the offense and injuries have raised new questions about a defense that last year seemed to squelch even the thought of scoring by opposing teams.

Rather than being concerned though, Starace is confident that this season will be even more successful than last. So far his confidence has been upheld by the impressive performance of his team. After five games the Knights are undefeated while managing to put up impressive totals against their opponents.

That success has been due, for a large part, to the performance of Mick Imgram who shared the center midfield with Arias last season.

A senior, Starace said that Imgram’s stellar play is due to her tenacity and strength on the ball. Imgram has the ability to retain the ball while contested and still keep her head up to find her teammates. Topping off her talents is a powerful shot that takes most goalkeepers by surprise. “You have to see it to understand how hard it is,” her coach said.

In Starace’s system of play with four defenders, four midfielders and two attackers, the two center midfielders split the offensive and defensive duties with one taking a more offensive role. This year, as Imgram is forced to become more attack-minded. Starace said she should see her point total rise significantly from an already impressive 19 goals from last season.So far this season Imgram has already racked up 6 goals and 5 assists.

But what has made the team so hard to beat is that the Knights don’t have a single focus for their offense. Returning senior Laura Beth Puglisi scored 25 goals last season from her attack position to complement the offensive production from the midfield. Puglisi creates a direct strike opportunity for the offense that keeps opponents from simply crowding the midfield in hopes of bogging down the run of play.

Starace is going into his 20th season with the Knights and has amassed a win total of 292 over those seasons. This year he hopes to pass the 300-win benchmark.

In his 20 seasons he has learned to instill a free-flow style of play to his offense that can think independently while working in unison. He stresses possession skills in practice with an intense focus on communication.

Starace also insists on leadership coming from the seniors who he expects to lead by example. “They know how to play hard and achieve,” he said.

The seniors will have to work especially hard to quickly pull together the defense which has been hurt by injuries. The team would be fielding a defense made up of all seniors but Amanda Dabbenigno and Lauren Kelly are now both out for the season with ACL injuries and two freshman defenders will be forced to adapt to the faster high school game and learn to work within a precise team effort.

While Starace admitted that the young players will be facing a challenge, he is confident they will be able to unite with the help of goaltender Ariel Baniowski. The unity of a defense often comes from solid goalkeeping and Starace said that she is a very vocal leader and is effective at directing her defense.

While not as tall as many goalkeepers, standing at 5-foot-4, Baniowski makes up for height with experience.

“She has great hands, and takes away angles,” Starace said. Baniowski has only allowed a single goal against her this season.

Looking ahead, Starace said he thinks the most difficult opponent will be Good Counsel High School from Montgomery County Maryland. Last season Good Counsel gave O’Connell their only loss and challenged them for the championship in the finals, where O’Connell won 4-0.

“They are very competitive. They really know how to play,” Starace said.

He pointed out, though, that as long as the Knights continued to work as a team he thinks they can repeat as conference champs.

Starace added that the future for the team is also bright. Four freshmen and eight underclassmen are playing on the varsity team.

In their first game this season against Ireton High School ninth-grade attacker Brooke Chang scored her first goal in her first game, a trend that has continued with 3 goals in the following four games. Starace sees this a good sign for her future production.

For Imgram and her teammates, as long as they can continue to communicate they could be talking about another big season by November.