The Cranston East girls soccer team is looking to make some noise in a new division as it moved down from Division II to Division III for this fall season.

The Bolts struggled last year and finished the season with just one win. The team was one of the youngest in the division and will still be young in 2022. The Bolts roster will feature just three seniors and a large population on underclassmen behind them.

“(Seniors) Kylie McCreavy and Norah Flinn have been leading since their junior year. I think now that we’ve moved down to Division III, it will suit us and the talent that we have. A lot of the kids that came in last year were new to the sport so their determination alone has been pretty impressive. As far as team chemistry, we’re still working on that, especially on the offensive end of the field. Defensively we are looking pretty solid,” said East coach Brianna Oakes.

Although East is still young, many of the returning girls saw significant minutes last season, which Oakes hopes will pay dividends this campaign.

“They’ve gained quite a bit of experience (last year) and I’m looking for four or five girls to come off the bench from my JV team last season. It will be interesting to see who will fill in those gaps. They are still learning our defense, we may be trying some new formations at midfield, hoping to score more goals,” said Oakes.

The Bolts will now take on a new slate of opponents, many of which they are unfamiliar with. Oakes hopes that the team will focus on themselves, rather than who is across the field.

“We scrimmaged Johnston and they’re in Division IV and they looked great, so you never know what you’ll be facing. We don’t want to focus on moving down, we just want to focus on what we know about ourselves. We’re going to see how it goes,” said Oakes.

According to Oakes, the key to the team taking a step forward this season will be playing as a unit and communicating.

“If you’re doing you job on the field, then your team is going to move in a positive direction. If you depend on each other to pick up on each other’s mistakes, or a skill that you may be lacking, we could be in the same position as we were last season. We need to build on that chemistry because that is something that we’ve been lacking the last couple of years,” said Oakes.

The Bolts will open their season next Wednesday when they take on St. Ray’s at home.