HERTFORD — The Southside Seahawks began their soccer season on Wednesday evening with a 9-1 victory over the Perquimans Pirates.

A lot of Seahawks joined the party, as seven different players tallied a goal in the contest. Jordan Hale (1), Jaime Guzman (1), Jario Juarez (2), Victor Gonzalez (2), Eduardo Gonzalez (1), Brandon Gutierrez-Hernandez (1), Bryant Gachuz (1) and Johnathan Hernandez (1) all scored on the afternoon.

Guzman and Hernandez both tallied two assists each, and Gutierrez-Hernandez picked up one as well.

The Seahawks are looking to match the success that they produced last year, as they finished 19-2, going unscathed in conference play at 8-0. The Seahawks lost in the second round of the playoffs in heartbreaking fashion that ended in a penalty shootout to Research Triangle.

“I fully expect to make the playoffs again this year,” Seahawks head coach Jay Petty said. “How deep we make it into those playoffs is kind of a wild card because you just never know who you’re going to line up against.”

Last season, Southside outscored their opponents 110-10 throughout the regular season. The Seahawks will again look to hang their hat on their defense, despite losing nine seniors off of last year’s squad.

This year, they’ll look to their six seniors — Guzman, Juaraz, Gachuz, Hernandez, Johan Prado and Eduardo Gonzalez — for leadership and guidance of an otherwise young team.

There a quite a few freshmen and sophomores on the team, and they’ll need to pick up a lot of things from this senior class to continue the dominance that Southside soccer has produced in the last few seasons.

“We have a great group of freshman that came in this year that have been able to be implemented right away. I started two of them last night,” Petty said. “These boys have been playing soccer together since seventh grade. They’ve really meshed well together, we just need a little bit more time together so the young guys can learn the system.”

The Seahawks have a 22-game schedule that includes trips to Farmville Central, West Craven, Ayden Grifton and Hertford County outside of their conference schedule Southside will host the same out of conference opponents throughout the season.

Their regular season home opener will be on Tuesday, Aug 26 against Ayden Grifton High School. First touch is set for 6 p.m.