With many of their top goal scorers from last season returning, the Pella Christian boys soccer team expects their offense to be a strong suit this year.

The Eagles, who scored 37 goals as a team last spring, bring back their top three scorers and four of their top five. Junior Ethan Van Arendonk posted a team high 13 goals as a sophomore, while juniors Theo Hugen and Camden Parker each posted 6 goals last year. While Pella Christian retains most of their offensive players, many defensive players graduated last spring. With a mixture of returning experience and new starters, first year Eagles head coach Mike Vander Molen says that he believes they’ll be just as competitive as they were a year ago.

“I think we have some pieces here we can play. Fortunately, we returned most of our scoring from last year, so I think offensively we’ll be a little bit better and we can put the ball in the back of the net a little bit more. So, we have a lot of good pieces here, we just have to kind of see how they all fit, but I’ve been pretty encouraged from what I’ve seen as we’ve been in our training sessions and I think we’re going to be just as competitive as we were last year.”

The Pella Christian boys soccer team opens their season on Eagle Lane against PCM on Thursday, March 28th.