Just days before the season kicked off, Upper St. Clair boys' soccer coach Uwe Schneider proclaimed his collection of talent as being the best he's fielded since his 2004 team, which captured the PIAA title.

Roughly two months later, the Panthers have done nothing to dispute their coach's assertion.

The Panthers, ranked No. 4 in Class AAA by the Post-Gazette, enter the WPIAL playoffs as not only a championship hopeful, but also one of the favorites.

Sporting a superb 15-2-1 record (8-2 in section), the Section 5 runners-up (both losses came to section champ Peters Township) are balanced offensively, stout defensively and have continually escalated their performance to the point where Schneider believes his original feelings about his group were dead-on accurate.

"I would say so," Schneider said. "I think because of the way we're playing right now and what we have on the field in starters and backups, I think we're very solid and very good overall this year."

They're currently playing their best soccer, too. The Panthers closed the regular season with six consecutive wins, including a 1-0 victory on the road against then-unbeaten and top-ranked Mt. Lebanon.

"I think we're a lot better than we were at the beginning of the season," Schneider said. "We did some experimenting and some changing around, but once we found the right players for the right positions, we got a lot better."

An area that has been excellent since the start and quite possibly the most productive in the WPIAL is the Panthers' brick wall of a defense.

The quartet consisting of senior center back David Steen, sophomore center back Mike Worthy, junior left back Alex Poneleit and sophomore right back Steve Machi have made life miserable for opposing offenses, all while earning high praises from Schneider.

"You're going to have to look far and wide to find four better defenders," Schneider said. "There are some good ones out there, but I don't know if there's any four as good as ours."

Steen, one of 12 seniors on the team, has been the linchpin of a defense that has shut out 12 opponents. A true leader by example, Steen might be the Panthers most indispensable player.

"He's kind of like our skipper for the whole team, not just the back four," said Schneider. "Everybody listens to him just because of the way he plays and practices. He doesn't have many weaknesses."

Neither does junior forward Jimmy Belack, who, like Steen, is a returning all-section performer. Belack's goal total is down from the 14 he tallied last season, but that hasn't been a product of decreased effort.

Because of Belack's standout sophomore year, opponents have been forced to readjust the way they defend him, and have chosen to blanket him with defenders and make his teammates beat them.

"When we go somewhere, he's the guy the other team focuses on," Schneider said. "He always gets the special attention. He's often double teamed, but he's opened up things for a lot of other people to score."

That leads to another reason why this Panthers team is special -- offensive balance. If one takes a peek at the Panthers game-by-game goal-scoring list, they'll notice plenty of diversity.

No player has reached double-digits in goals, with a multitude of names successfully finding the back of the net.

"We have a lot of people with four goals or three goals, and almost all our guys have that," Schneider said. "The goals always come from somewhere. And if that's the case, that's fine with me. That's better than having one guy scoring all the goals."

If the Panthers do have a perceived weakness, Schneider said, it's an inability to always finish games strong.

Although that contention might be true, it will be the Panthers' ability to finish the season strong that will be the final proof if Schneider's preseason declaration holds true.

Said Schneider: "I think all 11 players working with each other and for each other is what makes this team so strong."

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