Help from some unexpected sources has played a role in Freedom's unexpected sprint to the Section 5-A championship in boys' soccer this season.

The Bulldogs (13-2-1, 11-1 after dropping their regular-season finale to Quaker Valley Tuesday) returned seven starters from last year's team that qualified for the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons and reached the WPIAL quarterfinals.

"We expected to contend for the playoffs, but no one expected us to win the section going into the season, but things have come together with the addition of some older, athletic players who have joined our program," said veteran coach Bill Smith whose program won its first section crown since 1996, the year his younger brother, Ryan, led Freedom in scoring as a freshman.

Freedom's only loss prior to the Quaker Valley game occurred out of section against Section 5-AA champion West Allegheny, 4-1, Sept. 12.

Freedom went 11-0-1 after its first loss with the draw occurring in a 1-1 match at Section 4-A champion Carlynton Oct. 3. Then Freedom dropped a 2-0 decision to the Quakers on Tuesday.

Going into the season, Smith had quite a few holes to plug in the lineup. Among those gone from last year's successful campaign was All-WPIAL center midfielder Josh Cantella, who is playing at Westminster College. Also lost to graduation was goalkeeper Cody Morgan, a three-year starter.

Filling the void has been a collection of players who showed up unexpectedly, starting with senior forward Seth Sheidamantle, a WPIAL track standout in the 200- and 400-meter dashes. Sheidamantle is playing organized soccer for the first time this fall. He has scored nine goals, which ties him for second-place on the team scoring list with senior center midfielder Erik Gavrich, a transfer to Freedom in his junior year after playing for the Ambridge varsity as a freshman and sophomore.

"He didn't play soccer last year, but he began to play with our guys last spring," Smith said.

The other first-year starters are freshman goalkeeper Anthony Kosis and junior defender Franzee Bartalamas, who played football at Freedom last year.

"[Kosis] is a hard worker," Smith said. "He played goalie in junior high where they never really went through any hard practices, but he's come into the varsity program and picked it up with his hard work ethic."

"And Franzee decided after his sophomore year that he didn't want to play football anymore, so he's stepped in and played great defense for us and he's brought that hard-nosed, aggressive football mentality into the soccer program. He's added another dimension to our defense."

The returning starters include Franzee's sophomore brother, Costa Bartalamas, who is an outside midfielder, as well as senior forward Brad Brinkey (who has scored eight goals), sophomore midfielder Colin Allego, junior defender Adam Hunkins, and sophomore midfielder Jake Neidergall.

The top two returnees from last season include four-year starting sweeper Tanner Mesing and his twin brother, Luke, a center midfielder who leads the team with a dozen goals. The Mesings were all-section honorees last year.

"They are great team leaders and both are very gifted players," Smith said. "Tanner really anchors our defense. Luke played up front for us last season, but we moved him to center mid to fill the hole left by [Cantella] and he's stepped in there and done a very nice job."

The winning has increased in recent years along with the number of players now going out for the team.

In his 10th season as head coach, Smith said he used to get less than a handful of freshmen joining the program each year. This season he has seven in the program and next season he expects to see as many as a dozen ninth-graders coming out for the team with more players in the junior high program (30) than at any time during the past decade.

"We're definitely bringing more of a name to the sport here at Freedom and the more success we have, the bigger turnout we will get in the future, not only with our younger kids, but in the short term with some of those athletes who play other sports for the school and may want to decide to come out for soccer like some of the kids we have now."

Last year's appearance in the quarterfinals was somewhat unexpected after going into the playoffs as a lower seed. Freedom upset No. 3 seed Springdale, 1-0, before losing to Beaver County Christian, 2-1, a team that had swept Freedom in two games in the regular season by a 6-1 aggregate.

"Last year when we clinched the playoff berth, we were very happy and we had a team party for making it," Smith said. "This year, that team party is no longer there because we already expected to be in the playoffs.

"The goals are a little different than they were last year."

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.