Before dismissing the Plum High School boys' soccer team's improvement from last season's 7-9-1 campaign as being all in their heads, the Mustangs will say that's exactly right -- a big part of the upgrade is, indeed, in their heads.

"I think as a whole, the attitude is a lot better," Plum coach Mike Baleno said. "We're a lot more positive as a team. We're playing a lot more as a team than we did last year.

"A lot of guys just matured -- even the seniors seem different from last year. The maturity level is better and we have a better idea of how to play the game now. I think we'll play smarter than we have in the past."

"Last year, I think there was a lot of negativity," team captain Louis Ferragonio said. "This year, we've all come together. It's all positive. We feel like we're playing better together."

Plum had a tough time recovering from an 0-5 beginning last season, a slow start that was due, in part, to the Mustangs' trademark early-season challenging schedule, but seven starters return from a team that lost only one of its final five matches.

"Last year, I think once we got our confidence up, it just got us rolling," said Baleno, who is in his third season as head coach and fourth on the staff overall. "We just needed to get that confidence going. It started to come and that's when we started to win a little bit."

The Mustangs have an early opportunity to begin to build some confidence when they play in the Shaler tournament this weekend. Plum opens against Kiski Area 6 p.m. tomorrow.

"We'd really like to start off with a win at the Shaler tournament this weekend," Ferragonio said. "Then go take that momentum into the regular season."

A good student, Ferragonio is being recruited by some Division II college programs. A returning all-section sweeper, he will be moved to center midfield this season.

"He sees the field well," Baleno said. "He can distribute, he can strike the ball well. He's really an all-around very collected player."

Goalkeeper Eddie Stover is another senior co-captain who Baleno believes can adequately replace all-section honoree Jason Barbarino.

"There's no doubt he can keep the level of our goalkeeping very, very high," Baleno said.

Other top senior returning starters who will continue to make impacts are Bob Odom and Brett Bowen.

Baleno calls Odom, "In my opinion, one of the most dangerous forwards in our section. Very elusive."

Bowen will be moved back to defense this season.

"We have some seniors returning, it's a good group of guys," Baleno said. "There are some younger guys we've got to fit into the mix and kids we move into new positions, but on the whole, this team is strong this season. We've just got to find the back of the net and score some more goals. We struggled with that last season."

Plum scored only 21 goals in 17 games last season, including only four in the 10 games it did not win. The Mustangs were shut out six times and scored more than once in a game only five times.

Solving that problem will go a long way if Plum is to reach its goal of returning to the WPIAL playoffs.

"We created a lot of opportunities last year; we just didn't execute," Baleno said. "We didn't put the ball away when we needed to. We need to be a little more aggressive a little more goal-minded, a little more concentrated on the goal. We just didn't find the goal when we needed to, when we had an easy opportunity to put the ball away."

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