Franklin Regional boys' soccer ruled Section 3-AAA last year, going undefeated in the regular season to capture the program's first championship in 23 years.

It took coach Rand Hudson three years to get the Panthers (13-1-5 in 2007) to reach the pinnacle of the section. Now in his fourth season, Hudson has to keep Franklin Regional at the top, something that can be as difficult as turning around a downtrodden program.

"Each year we've made strides to improve, but that class [responsible for three years of improvement] has graduated, so they've passed that on to the next group and our goal is to just keep pushing that," said Hudson, whose team opened the season Tuesday at Woodland Hills with a 7-1 victory.

There is no reason for the Panthers to become complacent despite their memorable campaign last year, because the 2007 season ended with a 1-0 first-round loss to Hempfield. The Panthers lost a penalty kick shootout, 5-3, after 120 minutes of regulation and overtime play.

"It was a special, special season last year. [Hempfield] definitely had a defensive mindset and did a great job. I think we outshot them something like 15-4, but that's just the way it broke," Hudson said. "We hit some crossbars and some posts, but I think our lack of experience in the playoffs hurt us a little bit."

Franklin Regional is expected to contend for the section title again despite graduating 11 players, including several all-section honorees led by 16-goal scorer Mark DeLaTorre and goalkeeper Joey Liput.

The top returnees include two section all-stars: senior center midfielder Garrett Laird and senior outside midfielder Kevin Cala.

Other notable returnees are senior outside midfielder Mitch Settino and senior central defender Nate Ferri, a three-year starter. The other senior on the roster is first-year starter Blake Chaney, who lettered as a midfielder/defender last year.

Franklin Regional is ranked seventh in the preseason in WPIAL Class AAA by the Post-Gazette.

"I told our team that the hardest thing to do will be to repeat," Hudson said, "because once you become a section champion, or have a reputation [as a good program], you get everybody's best game."