Prince Edward County High School’s varsity girls soccer team is in the midst of writing the sequel to a historic season that was followed by the graduation of several key seniors and the departure of the head coach, but the Lady Eagles are pressing on successfully in 2019.

They entered this week with a 5-3 record after going 3-0 last week.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” new Prince Edward Head Coach Jessica O’Bryant said of the team’s season overall thus far.

O’Bryant served as a volunteer assistant coach last year to former Head Coach Madeline Buczek, giving her familiarity with the girls and the program entering this year. However, she highlighted that graduation did claim several players, and the team is short on numbers this year, with injuries playing a role.

“So it’s been kind of difficult putting bodies on the field and making sure that everybody’s rested and everything, but I think the season is coming together,” O’Bryant said. “I think they’ve learned how to play with each other.”

She said this moments after Prince Edward had defeated visiting Nottoway High School 2-0 on Thursday, the Lady Eagles’ second win over the Lady Cougars in as many days.

“We beat this team 8-0 yesterday, so I do think that we came out with a little bit of, not arrogance, but a little lackadaisical … ,” she said. “I think that we showed grit, and I think that we haven’t really shown that this season yet, so it was good to see some fire out of our team.”

The Lady Eagles are adjusting to the graduation of several key contributors, including Samantha Buczek, Natalie Cheyne and Katelyn McAbee. These girls helped the team go 14-2 last season, a mark that Prince Edward Athletic Director Rodney Kane confirmed was at least tied for the best in team history. The Lady Eagles also won the 2018 James River District regular season championship.

The 2019 Prince Edward squad features four seniors, three juniors, seven sophomores and three freshmen.

Just because the team is younger does not mean it and O’Bryant lack for serious goals.

“We talked about our goals at the beginning of the season,” the coach said. “We want to make it farther than we did last year.”

Last year, holding a No. 1 seed in the Region 2A tournament, the Lady Eagles advanced past the first round but fell 5-1 in the quarterfinals to visiting No. 9 Poquoson High School while playing without leading scorer Maria Waleska “Walle” Brito Raia.

Walle, an attacking midfielder, is back this season as a sophomore, helping lead the team with sophomore center back Amber Gillen.

“They’re both girls that perform very well on the field, and they really understand the game, and they’re two of my captains, and they’re only sophomores … ,” O’Bryant said. “I just felt like as sophomores that they led very well on the field, and they should be recognized for that.”

Two other team captains include senior left wing Meghan Williams and senior forward Clare Calhoun.

“So we do kind of have some of that more experienced leadership … ,” O’Bryant said.

Gillen demonstrated what a force she is on the field already as a sophomore during Thursday’s game, scoring both of Prince Edward’s goals on long shots from well outside the goal box while also playing defense.

O’Bryant said, “I kind of started playing her a little bit of holding center mid, because I do want her to score goals as well as defend, but she’s too much of a leader to not play in center back, to kind of be able to direct everybody. But it works out because whenever she gets up, Makylah Tillerson drops back, and Makylah recognizes, ‘OK, she’s going forward. Now I need to drop back,’ and that way we don’t have any gap, so they work well together doing that.”

Another goal the Lady Eagles have this year is to repeat as district regular season champions, but O’Bryant acknowledged that this will be a significant challenge.

“With the competition, we’re going to have to really put our all on the field whenever we play Goochland and Bluestone,” she said.

Prince Edward had played both teams once prior to this week, falling 5-1 to host Goochland High School on April 10 and losing 5-0 to host Bluestone High School on March 13.

O’Bryant noted that she definitely wanted another shot at Bluestone.

“When we played them it was very early on in the season,” she said. “We were still kind of figuring things out, so I’m excited to play Bluestone again.”

The rematch against the Lady Barons was scheduled for Monday evening after press time.

The Lady Eagles return to action Wednesday on the road against Randolph-Henry High School at 6:30 p.m.