At this early juncture in the season, the Paul VI Panthers remain the only undefeated high school football team in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. After two weeks of the 2006 season, the Panthers weigh-in with a spotless 2-0 record.

PVI, coached by Pat McGroarty (third season), defeated Loudoun County’s Broad Run High School 26-20 and Bishop Ireton High School 29-14.

O'Connell, coached by Steve Trimble (third season), weighs-in with a 1-1 record. The Knights defeated Ireton 31-24 and dropped a 23-10 decision to St. Alban’s.

Ireton, coached by Brian Inman (fourth season), have a 1-2 record. The Cardinals have defeated Richmond Benedictine 34-13, and have lost to both PVI and O’Connell.

Paul VI was 1-9 overall one season ago. "I'm happy to be 2-0 right now," said McGroarty. "I don't think to myself we need to be 10-0 or 9-1 or 8-2 or 7-3 to have a successful season. The players that we have currently are the kids that decided to make this program better. We're all happy where we are right now. All of the kids have been working hard."

The Panther offensive line is anchored by senior Dan Matheny at center, senior Josh Gadell at left guard, junior Sean Lyons at left tackle, senior Mark McDonald at right guard and senior Jay Warnecki at right tackle. The first four see significant action on the defensive line as well.

Junior D.J. Mangas is the Panthers QB in 2005. "D.J. has played well," said McGroarty. "He has thrown for over 500 yards on the season thus far. He has thrown the ball something like 60 times with only one interception.

"We're a spread, multiple formation set offensively," he added. "On virtually every play - we have a minimum of four receivers."

The Panther’s wide receiving corps is led by four juniors Philip Boisvert, Greg Cooper, Zach Costello and Daryl Spencer.

Junior Alex Soltis has spearheaded the Panthers ground attack.

"We're running a one-back set this year," said McGroarty.

Soltis, Matheny and Mangas are the Panthers tri-captains.

On special teams, junior Ryan Young has been handling the placekicking duties. Mark McDonald as well as J.P. Galik have been handling the punting duties.

"Both Mark and J.P. are capable of punting the ball 40 yards," said McGroarty.

Defensively, in addition to Matheny, Gadell, Lyons and McDonald on the line, the Panther linebacking corps is led by Soltis, senior Sean O'Neill and junior Ricardo Bailey. Outside linebackers include Philip

Boisvert and junior Calvin Mainor.

The PVI defensive backfield is comprised of senior Zach Miller, as well as Zach Costello and Daryl Spencer

"We've only got nine seniors on the team," said McGroarty. "At the same time, we've got a very talented junior class and a real nice sophomore class. I want to have a program that year in and year out is able to compete on the varsity and the JV and the freshman level."

The Panthers travel to Bullis on Sept. 16 and will host DeMatha Sept. 23.

"Consistency will be the key to getting by Bullis," said McGroarty.