If this offseason changed anything for women’s soccer, it was everything. One of the changes  entailed the loss of coach Jason Dunn and the gain of the previous boys soccer coach: head coach John Roberts.

Although new to the girls’ program, Roberts is a familiar face to PHS soccer – over the past two seasons he lead the boys’ program to a 22-16-3 record and a postseason berth in 2015.

The ex-Higley coach that lead the Lady Knights to a state championship plans to lead the 6th ranked Pumas to another championship.  “I think expectations are high just because of the previous several years of the girls program here” Coach Roberts commented on this “they expect to be good every single year and so would I”.

To be good this year however, the Lady Pumas have to deal with another new challenge in the new division. This new division keeps some of Perry’s old rivals like ranked #11 Basha and the second overall ranked Hamilton. What changed however is the addition of the #4 ranked Desert Vista and ranked #14 overall Corona del Sol.  This new schedule forces the Lady Pumas to play 9 of their 13 games against top twenty-five teams while playing four of the top five team in the state. This year will be the make it or break it for the Lady Pumas as after a huge state playoff run last year, they will have to prove if they have what it takes to be one of the best around.

As the season just opened up, the Lady Pumas already exceeded Coach Roberts’ expectations as they started the 2015-2016 season with a 4-0 sweep against Desert Ridge. In addition, they went up against the past state champion Highland as they beat the Hawks 4-0. With their 3-0-1 start, sophomore Amanda Dahl leads the team with four goals while junior Kelly Cannistra lead assist with three. The Pumas next play at Desert mountain on December 18.

With the new challenges that are faced and if the opening games can predict the answer, then the hashtag of #PumasWinState can actually come back.  In the words of Principal Serrano, “People ask me what sports at your school is good; girls soccer is one of them”.