In 2007, the Caesar Rodney High School soccer team was upset in the first round of the state tournament when it, seeded No. 2, lost to Concord High School, the No. 15 seed, in penalty kicks.

    Expectations were high for that team but it barely got to smell the tournament before its season was over.

    This season, that bad taste from last year has lingered.

    The Riders stormed through the regular season, collecting a record of 13-2-1 and a Henlopen Conference title to go along with it.

    They again earned the No. 2 seed in this year’s tournament, only ranking behind Salesianum School, and will take on No. 15 Seaford (11-5) in the first round.

    Head coach Darrell Gravatt said returning members of last year’s team, with memories of that early exit still fresh, are helping the team focus just on the first game and not the expectations for the tournament as a whole.

    “It’s still in the mind of the seniors,” Gravatt said. “The boys aren’t arrogant, they remember last year.

    “We won’t look past that first game, we’re just going to try to make sure we win that first game.”

    CR will be taking on a Seaford team they dispatched fairly easily during the regular season, beating the Blue Jays, 5-1, Sept. 16.

    In that game senior Wayne Tiller, attack, scored four goals and picked up an assist. This time around, Gravatt thinks Seaford will key in on Tiller a bit more.

    “I expect Seaford to try to maybe contain Wayne Tiller a little better,” he said. “They probably don’t want what happened last time to happen again.”

    The coach added, however, that more attention on Tiller allows his other players to create opportinities of their own.

    “I expect our team to attack in numbers with a variety of people,” Gravatt said. “If they key too much on one person then other guys on the team will do some damage on them. We have a variety of guys that can do that damage.”

    Right now the Riders coach thinks the team is in the perfect position to make some noise in the tournament. They are playing the best they played all year, but also realize they need to take it one game at a time.

    “We’ve been happy with our whole season,” Gravatt said. “I think we played our best soccer against Dover and Middletown late in the season. That said, they team will be really thrilled to get that first game behind us. But the boys are ready.”

    The No. 2 Caesar Rodney High School soccer team will play No. 15 Seaford High School at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5, at Milford High School.

Email Brian Citino at brian.citino@doverpost.com