Boys" soccer: Mount Vernon cruises to a 5-0-2 start When standout goalkeeper Lucas Belanger informed Mount Vernon Coach Bobby Garza early in the season that he was leaving the team to focus on preparing for college soccer, Garza gathered the Majors together for a meeting. Mount Vernon returned every starter from a team that had gone 14-3 the year prior, but Belanger was the rock of a unit that allowed more than one goal in a game just four times all season. Still, the optimism in the room never wavered, players said. "We don't hold a grudge against him for doing what he had to do," junior forward Simond Kargbo said. Coach told us what we're going to do from there, and we moved on and got better. We proved the team isn't about one player. The Majors certainly have done as much. With built-in chemistry forged by the bulk of the team having grown up playing club soccer together, Mount Vernon has cruised through its first seven games unbeaten, including an impressive showing last week when it defeated then-No. 3 Robinson, 2-1, and then-No. 9 Falls Church, 5-2. Kargbo (seven goals, two assists) has led the way offensively along with Erik Rodriguez (five goals) and Amardo Oakley (two goals, four assists), but the Majors (5-0-2) have been equally impressive defensively with senior Damaro DaCosta, a Radford recruit, solidifying the back line and Diego Castro manning the net. Castro had not initially come out for tryouts due to Belanger's solid spot in net, but joined after Belanger left the team and has been impressive. The two goals against Falls Church marked just the second time all season Mount Vernon had given up more than one goal in a game, and it was against a high-scoring Jaguars team that had scored 15 goals in the previous four games. The impressive start has the Majors again considered one of the front-runners in a crowded region race that has yet to see any team pull away from the pack. "Last year we did well, but I don't know what happened [in the playoffs], we just shut down," Kargbo said. I feel like this year we're ready to go all the way.