Thirteen players are returning to the Coupeville High School varsity soccer roster and in his third season as head coach, Paul Mendes said this could be the year the Wolves break through.

“We’ve got a lot of our forwards back and offensively, we are looking to score more goals this year,” he said.

Last season, Coupeville finished 4-13 overall, but lost three games by a single goal in regulation time, two more by shootouts and one in overtime.

Returning players include seniors Sam Berggren, Adam Curtin, Andre Martin, Tony Sherman, Geoff Wacker and Zeb Williams.

“We have a good senior class on the team,” Mendes said. “We’ve been pretty young the last two years but this year, we aren’t that young and that should help.”

Also returning are juniors Justin Adams, Evan Amelexum-Coleman, Travis Curtin, Jordan Lamb and Spencer Tack.

Returning sophomores are Mitch Stevenson and Isaac Wacker.

Amelexum-Coleman had a lot of playing time in goal last year and Wacker is also a goal keeper.

New to the varsity this season are juniors Ben Hayes and Garret Knoll, and sophomores Jack Caselden and Jason Knott.

“The big question for us is whether we can put a good defense together as we lost a couple of our top defensive players due to graduation.” Mendes said. “We should be able to score more goals this year and if we can put a defense together, we should have a successful season.”

Coupeville opens the season Thursday, March 17, hosting Friday Harbor in a non-league game. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. at Mickey Clark Field.