After getting a late start to its preseason, the Deer Lakes High School girls' soccer team made up for it with a quick start to the regular season.

John Siget was not named the Lancers' coach until Aug. 13, two days into the preseason. That did not stop the Lancers from opening the season by winning the Elizabeth Forward tournament and outscoring their two opponents by a combined 10-0.

"It wasn't too bad getting that late start," Siget said.

"I was just trying to learn the girls and their abilities basically. I had to come in and talk with the players to see what happened last year and let them know what I expected out of them.

"I am not trying to change too many things right away. I got a lot of input from the players and basically just went from there."

Deer Lakes came into the season with a young starting 11 that featured six underclassmen starting, including freshman goalkeeper Madison Moro. She was knocked out of the first game of the season after 76 minutes and is scheduled to return tomorrow night in a game against the Ellis School.

Moro still made quite the first impression in net for a partial game, stopping 19 shots. Senior starting midfielder Jessie Young, who scored a goal in the opening tournament, moved into net after Moro went down with an injury.

Playing in front of Moro will be a veteran defensive line with seniors Nicole Del Vaglio, Julie Ziencik and Kara Ober and sophomore Maria Del Vaglio.

"Right now I believe our defense is pretty strong," Siget said.

"Our midfield is strong, too, but we are going to have to be able to control our defensive end of the zone and when we get the opportunity we need enough fire power to keep putting the ball in the back of the net."

In the midfield, senior Shelby Parks and sophomore Kelly Butler have two goals after two games. Along with Young, junior Sara Katich is the other midfielder.

The forwards for Deer Lakes are two juniors, Ally Yeasted and Paige Prato. After the first two games Yeasted had two goals and Prato led the team with three.

"We are playing as a team and we are working our system," Siget said. "We are basically just taking our opportunities as we get them while trying to force the attack and playing what is presented to us.

"We are playing as a basic unit and getting everyone involved in the play."

Last season Deer Lakes finished 1¹/₂ games behind Burrell and Freeport for the second and third playoff berths out of Section 3-AA.

The section should be challenging again this season with defending section champion Springdale returning a lot of starters from a team that advanced to the WPIAL title game and PIAA semifinals.

Siget is well aware of the talent in the section after coaching most of the top players from Springdale, Freeport and Burrell when he was coaching a cup team for a year.

"I pretty much know most of the key players on the other teams," Siget said.

"When we do go into these games we will try to have them play our system and make adjustments as needed. We will not try to man up with them."

Along with coaching a year for a cup team, Siget also coached the girls' and the boys' teams at North Catholic and was a head coach at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

Siget has about three or four transition players at his disposal late in the game, including senior Katie Bertha who he anticipates being the first player off the bench.

Stephanae Schneider, a sophomore, and freshman Lindsay Rusek also are expected to contribute.

Sophomore Danielle Rupprecht and freshmen Kristine Baker and Candace Scanga will be available off of the bench as well.

Deer Lakes was scheduled to open section play yesterday against defending champion Springdale.