Orry Gerring, right, loads up to clear the ball from of teammate Keegan Rishel at the Maple Grove Red Dragons varsity soccer practice on Monday. P-J photo by Matt Spielman

BEMUS POINT — Nine months ago, the Maple Grove Red Dragons suffered a heart-breaking 5-2 loss to Maple Hill in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class C boys soccer semifinals.

A lot has changed since that cool November night in Goshen.

Head coach Cara Abbey stepped down following the season.

Nine Red Dragons graduated in the summer.

And Maple Grove moved down to Class D for the upcoming season.

That doesn’t mean a fourth straight sectional championship isn’t still the Red Dragons’ main goal.

“We’re going to take this season one game at a time,” new head coach Eric Daigler said Monday evening. “It’s definitely a solid group. I couldn’t ask to be in a better situation. They are a very well put together group of boys. I think we have a serious shot to do some special stuff this year.”

Daigler began his coaching career as the jayvee head coach for two seasons at his alma mater Sweet Home in suburban Buffalo. He then spent three years coaching at Chautauqua Lake, the first two as an assistant before taking over as the head coach. Daigler took over the modified program at Maple Grove last fall and helped Abbey with the varsity program.

“We had a little bit of an idea at the end of the year,” Daigler said of Abbey’s decision to step down. “I had told her during the playoffs that I didn’t want to talk about it. After we were done, we sat down and had a more serious conversation about how she wanted to still be involved.”

The main reason to be excited about the Red Dragons is their returning senior striker Eli Moore, the 2021 Post-Journal/OBSERVER Player of the Year.

Moore scored 29 goals and added 13 assists last season, playing a part in 55% of the Red Dragons’ 76 goals on the season.

“Eli is an extremely talented young man, probably one of the best strikers I’ve had the privilege to coach in my seven years,” said Daigler, who is a special education teacher in the BOCES system who works out of Chautauqua Lake’s building. “He’ll definitely be a big part of the puzzle this year. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do going forward as a fantastic player and in that senior leadership role.”

Of the nine Maple Grove players lost to graduation, three were Post-Journal/OBSERVER All-Stars a season ago. Sam Eimiller, the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Central Division Player of the Year, anchored a defense that allowed just 21 goals and posted eight shutouts last year.

Midfielder RJ Helt, another CCAA Central Division First-Team selection, scored 10 goals and had 12 assists while midfielder Alex MacCallum had eight goals and four assists.

“It’s definitely going to be a learning process for a lot of the guys who are stepping into bigger positions this year,” Daigler said. “There are positions all over the field where guys need to step up. … We have a lot of guys who need to use their versatility as their strength.”

Other players lost to graduation included goalkeeper Andrew Auer and injured defender Cam Crist as well as Benny Brown, Paxton Faulk, Ryan Fitzgerald and Trent Moore.

“With Andrew leaving, I know Nathan Cresanti is going to take on some of that work and he’ll do a tremendous job for us,” Daigler said of the goalkeeping situation. “Georgio Akl will be in the mix too, depending on the scenario and team that we’re facing.”

The Red Dragons return a ton of players who gained valuable experience throughout last year’s playoff run that included a sectional final victory over Lafayette and a dramatic pentalty-kick shootout ousting of Section V champion Keshequa.

In addition to Moore, seniors on the roster include Luis Gradewald, Akl, Steven Whitman and Carter Rishel.

“I know it’s a very small number of seniors,” Daigler said. “As a whole, we are a very young team, but those young pieces we’ll have to use in certain spots really want to make it happen for the senior class.”

The juniors include Cresanti, Jonah Foley, Trey DeMink, Fletcher DeMink and Keegan Rishel, among others. Daigler also expects a few sophomores to make an impact.

Maple Grove will open its season Sept. 2 in a tournament at Allegany-Limestone against the host Gators.

“That’ll be a huge test for us. They’re always a great program to go up against, always well put together and well coached,” Daigler said. “It’s nice to test ourselves early in the season against some stiff competition.”