AUBURN — Last year, the Edward Little golf team had top end guys, but lacked the depth to consistently win matches.

Coming into the new year, coach Chris Merrill believes the Red Eddies have the perfect mix of top end guys and depth at the end of the rotation to go farther than the KVAC semifinals, where they lost to arch rival and eventual KVAC champion Lewiston High School.

The Eddies return four of their six starters from last season: seniors Ryan Raby and Jacob Dubuc and sophomores Aaron Perkins and Ben Cassidy. Adding to their depth is Poland transfer Deryk Belanger, who will be entering his senior year.

“The younger kids are getting better as the days go,” Merrill said. “Most of them play during the summer months, and they get out here and get going. The seniors they look like they are carrying over from last season.”

Raby, Dubuc, Belanger and Perkins all said they’ve lowered their nine-hole scores from the last season and are shooting high 30s and low 40s.

“You have to shoot a score around there to be competitive with the guys on other teams,” Raby said. “There are some guys that are great competitors.”

Austin Cox and Kyle Romero were two workhorses from last season that the Red Eddies will have to replace. Merrill believes Raby and Dubuc will carry the load Cox and Romero shouldered on and off the course.

Merrill said Raby has all three aspects of the game during the practice rounds so far. Dubuc has been hitting the ball well off the tee and in the fairways.

“There was definitely a few clubs I was struggling last year,” Raby said. “The key to everything is practice so I have been playing a lot of golf. I have been definitely working on my (short) game because that’s where you can win a lot of matches.”

Belanger played for Poland last season is excited to play against Class A competition. He spent a lot of time at the driving range this summer hitting balls and developing his swing.

“Deryk is going to fit right in the top six,” Merrill said. “He has come out and jumped right in with us. He looks pretty good overall. He’s definitely going to jump right in and give us a chance to win some matches.”

Belanger doesn’t feel any extra weight on his shoulders coming in as an upperclassman.

“I have no pressure right now be cause I am out there doing the best that I can do,” he said. “Hopefully I can come through.”

He said he enjoys playing the guys so far because they are high-end players and he plays better when he’s being pushed. 

While only a freshman last season, Perkins saw his name in the top six throughout the season in various slots in the rotation. He played as high as a number two and low as a number five. As a sophomore, he hopes he has a consistent slot for the entire season.

He also hopes he can produce in road matches, as he struggled with them in his freshmen year. 

“I had a top ten at Brunswick (Country Club this summer), and that’s one of the courses where I lost at last year,” Perkins said. “I am hoping the experience from that tournament, this year I can win my match there.”

Dubuc has been taking on the role of leader, acting as a de facto assistant coach for Merrill.

“We are going to try to coach the guys the best we can,” Dubuc said. “We are going to help them out with their game, help them out with their swing.”

Now in his third season at the helm, Merrill believes he has a better handle as a coach, too.

“Last year was my second year with theses guys so we were still trying to get in the swing of things,” Merrill said. “Coming into this year, I know most of them now. I know what we need to improve on and probably know what each kid can work on to get better. Hopefully once the end of the year comes along, they improved a lot and we can improve from our results from last year to qualify.”

The KVAC has some strong teams with Lewiston and Brunswick among them, and Merrill said Mt. Ararat should have a strong year with some exciting players coming in. He hopes his players can give those teams some good matches.

“I think we will be right in the middle because Mt. Ararat is going to be a very strong team this year,” Merrill said. “They have a couple of freshmen coming in that will jump a lot of kids they had last year. There are some teams in our conference that we can be competitive with. If we can win those matches, I think we will be in the middle of the pack or in the higher tier.”

nfournier@sunjournal.com