Pictured: Adrian Lara-Castro (left) and Yaden Montanez

Salina South soccer coach Trey Crow came into this season with eyes wide open.

So did his top two veteran players.

After three straight regional championships, including a pair of Class 5A final four appearances, graduation losses had sapped most of the Cougars’ experience, setting up a classic rebuilding scenario.

Certainly, a 9-1 home loss to Hays in the season opener could have been a red flag. But instead of waving a white flag and surrendering, the Cougars took it as a challenge.

“We were planning on this being kind of a rebuilding season, but we also knew we had some key pieces and some guys that this summer really stepped up and we thought were ready to take that next step,” Crow said. “Some of them are finally getting there, and so we’ve done pretty well so far. We’ve still got a ways to go, but we’re getting there.”

Head coach Trey Crow

Since that first embarrassing blowout, South definitely has turned things around, posting a 7-3 record heading into Thursday night’s Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League match at Maize.

The Cougars rebounded from the Hays game with a 2-0 shutout of Andover and then beat St. Mary’s Academy, 6-2, to open their own South Invitational. They fell again to Hays in the tournament semifinals, but this time by a much more competitive 4-3 score.

The Cougars’ lone loss since then was a 2-0 decision two weeks ago at McPherson, and on Tuesday they knocked off a solid Hutchinson team, 3-0, at Salina Stadium for their third straight shutout.

“We knew it was going to be a brand new experience, new team, new everything,” said senior forward Adrian Lara-Castro, one of just three returning starters from last year’s 13-6 team that reached the state quarterfinals. “That first game really showed us if we don’t try and follow our game plan, then that’s what happens.”

Senior Adrian Lara-Castro

“But now as we’ve gone through the season, I think we’ve gotten into our groove. We know what to do in our jobs, and just working as a team together shows that it doesn’t matter if you’re a young team, you can still compete with some of the big guys.”

South leaned heavily on returning starters Lara-Castro, senior midfielder Yaden Montanez and junior defender Malcon Martinez-Zuniga early on. Lara-Castro, the team’s only four-year starter, leads the team in goals and is second in assists to Montanez, who is the No. 2 scorer.

“I want to take the pressure, like accountability, and just making sure everyone’s stepping up and doing their job,” Lara-Castro said of his leadership role. “Just holding the team together.”

Fortunately, the younger players have fallen in line.

“It’s more of a building team,” said Montanez, who assisted on two of South’s goals against Hutchinson. “We did have that rough start that first game, but I felt like that kind of woke us up.”

Senior Yaden Montanez

“I felt like it was kind of hard at first, but once they started listening and they adapted with us, we got better. Because a lot of them hadn’t played varsity.”

Crow, now in the ninth year of his second stint as South’s head coach has been pleasantly surprised by how rapidly things have fallen in place, given the roster turnover.

“I think part of it is that room for growth that we had at the start compared to the last few years, where we’ve come in with a pretty good product to start with,” he said. “Raising the bar was a little more challenging, and then this year because of where we started, we’ve been able to progress pretty quickly, and probably faster than any of us coaches or players really expected.”

As much as the recent string of victories has boosted the Cougars’ confidence, Crow and his team captains point to the two Hays games — and the disparity in the final scores — as the greatest catalysts in the turnaround.

“At the beginning of the season, I thought it was going to be rough,” Lara-Castro admitted. “But then we had a good (second) game against Hays, and Hays (6-2-1) is one of the top teams, and that just shows that we can compete with anyone in the state, really.”

“That (second) loss was a big turning point.”

Losing big in the opener clearly was a shock to a team accustomed to winning at a high level. But in the end, that winning tradition may have saved the Cougars.

“Them knowing that feeling, I feel like it is motivating them to get better and to send me and Adrian off with something,” Montanez said of the younger players. “They’ve been playing hard during these games, trying their best, and I feel like they’ve improved a lot more.”

Crow concurred.

“I think it’s huge for the culture of our group we have now, because all of these guys that are now getting opportunities on varsity had to fight to get there,” Crow said. “It wasn’t given to them because we were starting over, and everyone had a role and a spot.”

“I also think practicing against those teams last year and the year before, they saw the expectation of what the program had, and they’ve really bought into that and trying to keep the bar high versus resetting the ball so we can move up.”

The victory over Hutchinson was particularly telling, shutting down a team that came in at 6-2 and boasting one of the state’s most prolific scorers in Griffin Galyon. Sophomore goalkeeper Kade Poland had nine saves, including one big stop against Galyon.

South was solid in defense overall, led by Martinez-Zuniga and sophomore up-and-comer Oscar Garay. Backup winger Jonathan Picasso scored the opening goal in the 12th minute off a pinpoint pass from Montanez, and Rodrigo Montanez doubled the lead early in the second half when he poked the rebound from a Lara-Castro blast into an open goal.

Lara-Castro then clinched the victory in the 78th minute on a set piece, scoring from distance off a pass from Montanez.

The Cougars look to improve to 2-0 in the Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League’s top division at Maize (6-4). A victory could go a long way toward continuing the momentum for a potential postseason run.

If they can reach the 5A quarterfinals again, it would tie a school record of four straight regional titles established from 2013-16.

“I was a little nervous the first couple of games after we didn’t have results go quite how we wanted,” Crow said. “But then we also had a couple of surprising results that said, ‘Hey, there’s some potential,’ and now we’re starting to kind of realize that.”

“Going into our league, getting this first win (against Hutchinson), I feel like this will give them a bunch of momentum going into Thursday’s game, which will be an even tougher challenge against a very good Maize team.”