Boys soccer won their second home game of the preseason, defeating Santa Teresa High School 4-0 and moving to 3-1-0 on Dec. 6.

Senior and co-captain Lucas Yuan scored the first goal, followed by sophomore and wingback Rohan Bhatt, junior and midfielder James Park, and finally, Bhatt struck again to round out the scoring.

Senior and goalkeeper Jacob Kinsky said that although their opponents were tougher than expected, the team’s energy and confidence helped Paly get a resounding win.

“(This game was) a little bit more challenging than our previous game, but we came out and played strong, fought hard and we definitely came out to win and (do) what we needed to do,” Kinsky said.

With Paly still undefeated after four games, Park said the team’s boosted confidence will help them succeed moving forward.

“I feel like we played confidently as a team, and we’re getting better day by day because of it,” Park said.

Junior and midfielder Finnegan Schoebel said the new formation, which utilizes four midfielders instead of the traditional three, helped them succeed in this game.

“We played through the middle a lot today and were able to try a new formation in the midfield, which really worked out for us,” Schoebel said.

However, the game also highlighted areas of improvement for the team. Senior and co-captain Zachary Crystal said they still need to work on their tactics.

“We need more strategy and plays, we need to work on our set pieces and on recovering the ball a bit faster as they were strong on the counterattacks,” Crystal said.

Kinksy echoed Crystal’s sentiment and said with the right adjustments, the team could have a successful season ahead.

“Overall our creativity in long balls, passing, and attacking hard, keeping the pressure high allowed us to get them tired in the second half which opened the window for us to really attack and score,” Kinsy said “If we keep doing what we’re doing I think we can make it all the way to CCS.”