Despite starting last season with little fanfare, the Lakeland/Panas Rebels were thisclose to winning the Section 1 Class A championship. But the Rebels wound up losing to Yorktown 11-10 in overtime after holding a 9-4 third-quarter lead.

Once again this season, most observers have tabbed Yorktown to win the title. But Lakeland/Panas should, at the very least, be a strong contender.

Junior midfielder Conor Prunty tells us more.

* Player’s perspective archive

* For background info on Conor, click here.

What have you been doing to get ready for the season?
We’ve been working real hard since early January in the weight room, in the gym and in the winter league to try to get ready for the season. Now we just hit the ground running, we don’t have to waste time on starting with the basics, we are getting done what needs to be done.

Can you talk about some of the key players you lost from last year and how you think you will be able to replace them?
Our three biggest losses were Jack Doherty, Johnny Hitman and Andy O’Mara. They were all big-time players for us last year and big-time leaders, too. But we have a bunch of young kids that just want to play hard and win, so they will step up.

What player or players on your team do you think will surprise some people this season?
Robert Caffrey. He’s a lefty attackman who can get to the cage.

How does your schedule look and which ones are you looking forward to most?
Our schedule looks pretty good this year. We are going out to Seattle over spring break to play a couple games out there. We also added Penn Yan to our schedule and a team from Pennsylvania, which should be a good test. Then all the rivalry games — Somers, John Jay, Mahopac and Yorktown. We are really looking forward to getting after it.