BY MATT SCHOOLEY

Winning a state title is the fun part. Defending the championship may prove to be the tricky part.

However, the Hopkinton High School boys soccer team hopes the second title run proves just as fun.

After graduating three starters from last year’s team, the Hawks seem in terrific position to repeat. However, those three starters include two defensive backs.

“We still have two very big spots to fill, and there is no obvious person waiting in the wings to fill them,” said head coach Scott Zipke. “If we can find the right people to fill those spots, I  think we’ll be all right. But if not, I think we’re going to be giving up too many goals.”

Zipke said he expects Hopkinton to face each foe’s best effort, and Hawks goalkeeper  and all-state candidate Zach Cousens agreed.

 “I think we’re going to be a good team, but we need to replace those key guys whose spots are going to be hard to fill,” said Cousens, who saved five shots in the team’s season opener on Monday, Aug. 27. “It’s going to be very hard because of the competition this year … We’ll get their best games every time.”

Senior center midfielder Dave Wood said last season was exciting, but the 2007 squad is ready to move on.

“We’re trying to forget about that and start over. We know a lot of teams are going to be gunning for us, and there are a lot of good teams,” said Wood.

The Hawks began the campaign with a 5-0 win over host Epping.

Travis Flugestad scored the team’s first three goals, one on an assist from Matt Demers. Joe Dammann scored on a feed from Wood, and freshman Kris Abildgaard capped the scoring. Travis Kuster started his first varsity game at sweeper and did a fantastic job, the coach said, keeping the defense organized.

“We’re playing some good teams right off the bat. With any season there are always going to be ups and downs. When you come to the downs, you’ve got to be able to know that what’s happened has already happened and move on,” said Zipke.

Even though the coach doesn’t feel completely comfortable heading into the season, he said he doesn’t expect to.

“I don’t know that any coach feels like they’re ready to go for game one, and I don’t know if any coach feels like they’re ready to go for game eight. I think the most important thing, though, is feeling like we go into the season prepared,” he said. “We’ve always had a good mentality. We just have different personnel this year.”