After Pinecrest Academy's boys soccer team started the season 0-4 – outscored 19-3 by opponents – the players and first-year head coach Domenic Martelli had to stop and take the team's temperature. After all, Martelli was in his first year with a team that lost loads of senior leadership from last year's state playoff roster, so even he was adjusting to the conditions at hand—a much younger, smaller club than the Paladins were used to. As it turned out, senior Lucas Perez took it upon himself to act as the team's thermostat, if you will.