West Salem High School’s boys soccer team fell just short of two of its top goals a year ago, finishing a late upset loss to Central shy of a Mississippi Valley Conference championship, and falling in a Division 2 sectional final. With added scoring punch, and strong and play in the midfield and at goalkeeper, the Panthers seem to have the pieces in place to make a run toward returning to and winning a sectional this fall.

West Salem (11-2) has a strong one-two scoring punch in Andy Sobkowiak and Jacob Bina. Bina’s success doesn’t come as a big surprise after being last fall’s MVC Player of the Year, but Sobkowiak is the team leader in goals with 13, including two game-winning goals, while also tallying six assists. Sobkowiak was slowed by a broken collarbone last fall.

“He’s developed better awareness for where he is on the field,” Panthers coach Jason Mahlum said of Sobkowiak. “He’s making good runs and our midfielders are getting the ball through to him. He’s also making runs at the right times to allow our midfielders to get the ball to him early enough so he has time to make a couple of moves after that, too.”

The emergence of Sobkowiak has meant opponents can’t focus too much of their defensive efforts on man-marking Bina. West Salem is on a six-match winning streak since falling 4-1 to Caledonia and 2-1 to Onalaska in consecutive matches Sept. 8 and 11. The back-to-back losses came in part because the club was struggling with their roles.

“We had four or five varsity newcomers that were struggling to adapt to the pace of varsity play,” Mahlum said of the brief rut. “We’ve tried Andy at three of four different positions before he really developed as a scoring threat. Now we can count of him to score almost every game, and he’s setting our other guys up, too.”

While Sobkowiak and Bina had done large chunks of the goal scoring, Andy Quinn is controlling the midfield. The senior outside mid was a second-team all-league pick in 2007.

“He’s an excellent communicator even when he’s not part of the play,” Mahlum said. “He’s always telling his teammates where they need to be.”

Behind Quinn and the defense, goalkeeper Tony Berg has recorded five shutouts, including three in a row over the last two weeks. Berg has stopped nearly 90 percent of the shots he’s seen this season.

“He’s not a very vocal guy, but I’ve never seen a high school keeper who has better hands,” Mahlum said. “It’s very rare that the ball hits his hands and doesn’t stick, and there have only been one of two times all year where he’s allowed a goal because he’s been out of position.”

Included in a would-be Berg highlight would be a Sept. 30 save in a match against Holmen. That save, which Mahlum called the best he’s ever seen by a high school keeper, helped propel the Panthers from a scoreless halftime tie to a 3-0 win, their sixth win in seven meetings with their former brethren in the MVC.

“Tony’s made every save he’s supposed to make and a few spectacular ones, too,” Mahlum said. “I wish we had him for many more years because he sees the field so well, and he can punt it a mile, too.”