The Van Buren and Madawaska soccer teams always play each other early in the fall – for Madawaska, the games against Van Buren are typically its first and last of the regular season – and the two St. John Valley schools have always been rivals.

This year, the mutual season-opener between the boys teams will be a meeting of regional champions who figure to go deep in the playoffs again this year.

The defending Class D state champion Crusaders will host the defending Eastern Maine Class C champ Owls at 5 p.m. Monday, followed by the girls game at 7.

“I think the kids will be up for it,” said Van Buren boys coach Steve Lapierre, who is entering his 26th year. “It’s a pretty big one.”

Most of the Aroostook County teams have been practicing for at least 11/2 weeks and began playing last week or start this week because of the fall break for the potato harvest.

The Crusaders graduated just three players from last year’s team, although they were at important positions like forward (Andy Martin), goalie (Dustin Cyr) and center fullback (Tyler Lapierre). Martin had a team-high 29 goals last year.

This fall, Brandon Boulware and Ben Doucette will start at the wing positions and Alex Martin, Andy Martin’s brother, will start in the middle of the front line. Doucette’s brother, Jake Doucette, will start at center midfielder while Jean Pierre Dumond, a forward last year, will take over the stopper-center fullback role played by Tyler Lapierre last fall.

Tony Vaillancourt returns for his senior season at sweeper. Andrew Taylor took over at goalie after Cyr was injured late in the season and was in the net for all five of Van Buren’s postseason wins.

Madawaska eventually fell in the Class C state title game, a three-overtime, 2-1 loss to Carrabec of Anson. But that didn’t take anything away from the team’s spectacular postseason run as the No. 10 seed. The Owls beat the Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 7 seeds en route to the regional title.

Coach Ben Sirois said his team is eager to get back to the EM final, and even beyond to a state championship.

“If they want it they can do it,” he said. “I think we have a really good team this year.”

The Owls graduated just four seniors, including leading scorer Myles Morneault, who had scored more than 20 goals last year, and goalie Paul Michaud.

That means Sirois has had to move around some of his returning players, including Billy Roy, who has previously been the team’s defensive leader. Roy will now play at center mid.

“That’s really the only way I’ll be able to replace Myles. Billy has some big shoes to fill,” Sirois said. “But he’s the kind of player who could really be in any position. … Nine of our 11 starters will be in new positions so it’s going to take us a while to get going.”

Other key position players this year are stopper Craig Daigle, sweeper Andre Roy, who is Billy Roy’s cousin, and Andre’s twin Paul Roy, who will be a striker.

Sophomore Andrew Levesque will get his first varsity start in goal after playing the position as a junior high student.

The Owls also added Dom Rossignol, who played for Van Buren last year. The wing midfielder is the son of Matt Rossignol, the former Van Buren High and University of Maine standout athlete who coaches boys basketball at Madawaska.

“He’s anxious to get [the Van Buren game] over with,” Sirois said.

The landscape of County soccer will change somewhat this year as Fort Kent drops down to Class C. The Warriors got as far as the Eastern Maine Class B semifinals.

That means games between Fort Kent and Madawaska will take on added intensity, too, as the Owls try to defend their Eastern Maine Class C title.

“We always looked at those two games against Fort Kent as being just like a playoff game,” Sirois said. “That’s the atmosphere. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens this year.”