[11/11/04]There were times last season when Karen Carroll would stand all alone on the sideline during a game, surveying the action on the field and trying to figure out how to make her team go.

St. Al had just 14 players on its girls roster for its inaugural season last year, and played a few games with the minimum 11 on the field.

Now, with the roster doubled and a solid core group established, the Lady Flashes are set to turn a corner and challenge for their first playoff berth.

“We’re way ahead on this program. It was looking bleak last year, but they stuck it out,” Carroll said. “That’s (playoffs) what we’re shooting for. Nothing less, really. With this team, they’re going to be able to play with just about anybody if they’re all there.”

Thirteen of the 14 players from last season’s team are back, and they’ll be joined by more than a dozen new faces. It’s a roster with only two seniors, Lindsay Hall and Laura Cialone, and littered with young talent.

Junior midfielder Andrea Harrison was a goal machine last season, scoring 27 times. Freshman forward Haley Davis also emerged as an offensive force, compiling 15 assists.

Flashes begin life without superstar

The St. Aloysius Flashes lost Michael Head, their go-to guy, to graduation. And it may actually be a good thing.

When Head Warren County’s all-time leading goal scorer in boys’ soccer was in the lineup last season, the young Flashes relied on him too much. They passed him the ball despite swarms of defenders hovering around him, then stood by and let him try to fight through the hordes for a goal.

This year, St. Al is hoping for a little addition by subtraction and an improvement on last year’s 6-11-1 record.

“I think we’re better across the board,” senior Bern Ebersole said. “(Head) was definitely a good player, but we thought he was going to come in and do all the work and win all the games.”