MARYSVILLE — It was a small step for a soccer team but a giant leap for M-P soccer when the Tomahawk boys soccer team earned their first trip to the state tournament in almost 25 years last spring.

Although every team loses a few key players to graduation — Marysville being no exception — the Tomahawks return with plenty of talent from last year’s group. An experienced backfield of senior Jeff Jensen, senior Ryan Miller and junior Keir Torkkola with help Kyle Bloom as he takes over as the varsity goalkeeper. In the midfield, the Tomahawks return junior Brady Ballew and senior Tyler Miller while forwards Seth Jones, John Crenshaw and Terrence Johnson are also back for another season.

But while M-P has experienced players all over the field, it’s the players unfamiliar to last year’s team that make this year’s squad look so promising, so early. For nearly every critical loss from last year’s team, there are players with the potential to step in right away. Despite losing four-time all-league midfielder Nick Burdett to graduation, the Tomahawks get back senior Elwood Sevon, who took his junior year off to play academy soccer.

Also ready to make an impact are a pair of senior forwards who tried out for the first time this season.

“We got some new forwards, we have Anival Moreno. He’s a real hard-working, quick forward. And we have a good post-up forward in Kevin Chavez,” said M-P coach Geoff Kittle. “This is the first time they came out. But they made the team. It’s kind of cool to find guys you don’t anticipate coming out.”

The boys appear primed to help step in where the Tomahawks graduated starting forwards Ryan Wilson and Jordan Salcedo.

Unlike last year though, Kittle doesn’t expect this team to catch teams by surprise. After falling just short of a league championship last spring, the Tomahawks expect to be taken seriously. And while fellow league leaders Snohomish and Cascade have taken blows over the offseason — the opening of Glacier Peak depletes the Snohomish base somewhat and Cascade lost its head coach to the new Grizzlies squad — both return talent and playoff experience. Kittle said he expects Lake Stevens to be strong as well.

While last year’s season, which ended in a 2-1 loss to Puyallup in the first round of the state tournament, is still on the minds of this year’s team, Kittle said he is encouraging the team to form their own identity.

“While we have goals to win the league title this year and to do better than last year’s group, at the same time, we’re just really going to try to take it one game at a time to keep ourselves focused that way,” he said. “I just hope the guys don’t put too much pressure on themselves. I’m excited, I think we have a talented group. I think we have a lot of potential to do well this year.”