Central Catholic has been on the cusp of a championship campaign the past two seasons in the WPSLA boys' lacrosse competition.

The WPSLA becomes incorporated into the WPIAL in 2009, but the Vikings have no intention of waiting until next season to win a district championship.

Central Catholic, 15-3 last year, figures to be among the top contenders again this spring. Central Catholic was the WPSLA runner-up in 2006 and lost, 6-5, in the semifinals last year to North Allegheny after defeating the Tigers, 8-7, during the regular season.

Despite graduating 15 seniors last year, the Vikings have 15 more 12th-graders ready to assume leadership roles, including four who were all-league honorees as juniors

The all-league returnees include senior defenders Charlie DeCarlo and Brendan Marchione, senior long-stick midfielder Brooks DeFiore and senior offensive midfielder C.J. Burke. The biggest hole in the lineup that needs to be filled is the graduation loss of attacker Will Donley, who has started several games this spring at Penn State.

Other significant returnees include the Stacy twins, Gabe and Alex, who were midfielders last season. The Stacy brothers are seniors with Alex Stacy remaining in the midfield and Gabe Stacy moving to attack along with juniors Dom Cercone and Matt Donahue, who scored five goals when the Vikings won, 8-7, in overtime March 19 at Landsdale Hempfield, a powerhouse in the Central Pennsylvania league.

"I look for [Donahue] to have a big year this season," Vikings coach David Deal said. "[Gabe Stacy] is a big, strong lefty and we needed some lefty power on offense so that's why we moved him to attack."

Also playing key roles are senior goalie Ryan Pilarsi, senior defender Tom Gray, and midfielder Casey Totten, a standout defensive back for Central Catholic's WPIAL and PIAA championship football team in the fall. Totten has been playing with a partially torn ACL, which forces him to wear a brace on his right knee. Totten will have surgery at the end of the season. He is the nephew of head football coach Terry Totten.

"In terms of our ability to reload every year, I would say this year should be another big season for us," Deal said.

"Next year we may be down when we don't have that many seniors, but I think we have our JV kids in line to really step in and keep the program going. We have some freshmen and sophomores we hope to mix in with the varsity a little bit, so we feel we can sustain winning with the number of talented players we draw from. We have around 50 in our program.

"With 15 seniors again, some will really contribute more in practice [than they will in games], but it's still nice to have those numbers. We want to reward the kids who have stuck with the program for four years."

Mt. Lebanon has won the past two championships and five WPSLA titles since 2000, so Deal sees the Blue Devils as the "team to beat" in the league again.

"They're always the team to beat because of their resume," he said. "I think our section [North Division 1] will be extremely competitive. I feel we could win [the section], but we could also be the fourth seed or looking from the outside in terms of the playoffs. It's that close this year.

"I look for NA, Seneca Valley and Shady Side Academy, Sewickley to all be competitive. I look for the section to be a fun section to play in with all the games being so competitive."

Central was slated to play a non-section game against Hampton at home yesterday. They begin section play at home against Sewickley Academy on April 2. The win at Landsdale Hempfield was a good sign for a winning season.

"To win that game after traveling for a few hours bodes well for us," Deal said. "It was a game that we probably shouldn't have won. We were down, 7-5, with just a couple minutes left, but we were able to score late due to a couple procedural calls against them. We've got a long way to go and a lot to learn.

"[Hempfield] really had a lot more possession with the ball and outshot us in three of the four quarters and pretty much outplayed us.

"If there is one thing about our team is they're resilient and they don't give up.

"We've got to improve. If we can continue to improve, we'll be in good shape."