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The Eleanor Roosevelt High School boys' soccer team had a sense of déjà vu during last year's 4A South Region playoffs. The Raiders lost to High Point in a penalty kick shootout in the regional semifinals on Nov. 6. A little more than three months earlier, they lost a summer league title game to High Point, also on penalty kicks.

The Raiders, tied for first place in the seven-on-seven league that plays Thursday nights at Prince George's Community College, are using last year's heartbreak as motivation. Roosevelt owns a 10-1-1 record, with the playoffs and finals of the league scheduled for tonight.

Roosevelt summer league coach Avinash Chandran said the team isn't taking the summer season lightly as it prepares for the fall.

"I think the boys are ready for the fall, and that's what we use the summer season for," said Chandran, who is a 2007 Roosevelt graduate. "We take the summer season very seriously because there are certain standards that Roosevelt stands for. There is no reason why we shouldn't take this time serious. We have a chance to win some hardware, so why wouldn't we take this seriously?"

Chandran said Roosevelt had a talented team last year and many people thought the Raiders could win a state championship. But those dreams were derailed when High Point knocked off the Raiders, 2-1, in a playoff game decided by penalty kicks. The Eagles advanced to the state semifinals, while Roosevelt was left wondering what went wrong.

This year's Roosevelt squad is shaped like last year's team: lots of senior leadership with younger players who can fill in key roles. O'Neal Cunnan, Rene Pizzaro and Simon Hochmuth are three of the seniors that will play key roles for the Raiders in the fall. Junior Emmanuel Ajayi and sophomore Ben Walsh-Mellett are two of the younger players that will be key contributors.

Chandran said this year's group has used the summer to grow together as a team and become more cohesive. They also have dominated play in the Thursday night summer league, with their only loss coming to the Maryland Strikers, a travel team based in Bowie.

"We have been working hard and coming out to practice and get better," Ajayi said after the Raiders victory against Friendly on July 22. "We have been focusing on finishing the games early and not go[ing] into penalty shootouts, because they are tricky. We have a lot of potential that we need to work hard on and carry over into the fall."

Although Roosevelt could be one of the more talented teams in the County 4A League this fall, Chandran and Ajayi said the team still has work to do. Ajayi said the team needs to work on ball control and patience, while Chandran said the team still needs to improve its basic skills.

"There is always room for technical improvement at any level of soccer," Chandran said. "There are a lot of people that need to realize it takes work to envision things and see things on the field. That comes with age and maturity, and that's part of our jobs as coaches. We are trying to get them ready for some of the match-type conditions they will see in the fall."

E-mail Joshua Hudson at

jhudson@gazette.net.