There were plenty of reasons to lament for the Tooele boys soccer program last year including a 2-13-1 overall record, a 2-9-1 region record and not making the playoffs.

But the thing that seemed to annoy the Buffaloes more than anything else was a 2-1 loss to Grantsville on April Fools Day on the Tooele High School football field in the eighth game of the season.

“We’re eager to play Grantsville,” said second-year coach Alex Zamora. “We played them right in the middle of our region season last year and we were dog tired.”

Grantsville and Tooele face each other today at 3 p.m. in Grantsville. In last year’s game the Cowboys edged the Buffaloes 2-1.

The coach said when the Grantsville game rolled around last year his players had become accustomed to losing in powerful Region 7, which features four of the top 20 high school soccer teams in the state again this year. “When the Grantsville game came we were in the habit of losing. It will be a good way to start the season by going up against Grantsville, ” Zamora said.

The coach also believes his team will have a good chance of making the playoffs this season because five of seven Region 7 teams will qualify instead of the four teams that made the playoffs last season.

Zamora’s optimism stems from the fact that he has two top defenders returning this season in Jake Golden and Taylor DeYoung. DeYoung started the season as the goalkeeper last year.

“We’ll probably use Taylor back on defense along with Jake as the center back defender. We have a lot of new players this year along with a couple of transfers that should help us. Nestor Luna has transferred in from Wendover and he is the top offensive player in Tooele County. We also have forward Israel Gutierrez who is a transfer from Grantsville. That gives us two top offensive players. We should have a potent offense,” the coach said.

“The main thing for us this year will be to maintain possession of the ball. Our opponents can’t score if we maintain possession. We should be strong enough on offense to strike whenever we want,” he said.

It appears that Peter Wilson Jr. will play goalkeeper. “He’s made great improvements as a goalie,” his coach said.

“We have several players with potential who can fill in and make us a good team. Our region of course is very strong with four top 20 teams. Our goal is to be a top 20 ourselves this year and make the playoffs. With five of the teams in our region qualifying for state, making the playoffs is a realistic goal for us,” Zamora said.

The Tooele roster includes seniors Golden, DeYoung, Gutierrez, Ben Iniquez, Brady Wice and Adrian Ibarra. Juniors are Bobby Schmidt, Luna, Peter Wilson. Sophomores include Javier Olmos, Tyler Thornton, Shawn Howa, Tim Namanny and Joseph Hernandez. Freshmen include Ben Medley and Edmundo Garcia.

After today’s game against Grantsville, Tooele plays at Pleasant Grove on Thursday and hosts Springville on Tuesday, March 17.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com