The smoke billowing from the field during a Serra Catholic boys' soccer game last year was the Eagles' season going down in flames.

The Eagles struggled mightily during a 3-14 campaign, which saw them go a dismal 1-7 in section play.

In hopes of containing the blaze and not allowing it to spread to this season, the Eagles turned to, of all people, a fireman.

Don Sabol, a McKeesport deputy fire chief when he's not coaching, has helped engineer a rebirth of the Serra program. The Eagles (7-6-1, 6-4-1 in Section 1-A) have rebounded from a rough campaign to assert themselves as a legitimate WPIAL playoff contender.

After a shaky 1-3 start, the Eagles ran off six consecutive victories to put themselves in contention for the third playoff spot in the section. They then dropped consecutive section matches to the two front-runners, Greensburg Central Catholic and Trinity Christian, but still have a good shot to gain the third spot.

Going into last night's matches, Serra was in a three-team scramble along with California (6-4-1) and South Allegheny (6-5) for the third playoff spot. Serra played host to Geibel while South Allegheny and California squared off.

All three have two section matches remaining.

"It's a long time since we've been able to put together enough good kids to have a winner," said Sabol, formerly a coach for the Serra girls' team. "We're proud of the way they're coming together."

Serra's success has been spurred by the quick maturation of a group consisting of mostly juniors and sophomores. Early on, it looked as though this would be 2007 revisited, with the Eagles dropping three of their first four games by a 14-5 margin.

Since then, however, the offense has been potent, the defense and goalkeeping have been stifling and, overall, the Eagles seem to have found a groove.

"The first couple of games and even the scrimmages, we were losing games lopsidedly," Sabol said. "We were still feeling them out, and they were still feeling each other out. It took us a while to jell, but the chemistry is coming together now."

That chemistry was evident in a critical 2-1 win Sept. 22 at South Allegheny in which the Eagles rallied from a 1-0 halftime deficit. After playing what Sabol called "a sluggish first half," the Eagles came to life just minutes into the second half when junior Brett Gwosden tied the contest with a penalty kick.

With eight minutes remaining, sophomore Paul Rubenstein took a pass from David Szekely and pounded it past the Gladiators' goalkeeper to put the Eagles ahead.

Receiving offensive production from many players is nothing new for Serra.

At least nine players have scored goals this season, with junior center midfielder Ethan Hellwig, perhaps the Eagles' most-talented player, and Rubenstein leading the way with six and five goals, respectively.

Defensively, the Eagles have been extremely stingy since a shaky start. The unit features sophomores J.T. Thieret and Brendan Conn at fullback, junior Alex Grebur at sweeper and sophomore John Spirnak at stopper.

Sabol's son, Nick, a junior, has done an excellent job as the starting goalkeeper.

"It's not like we're one-dimensional," Don Sabol said. "We're solid from front to back and left to right. That's what makes the big difference."

For a team that was not expected to do much, a strong finish would be quite an accomplishment. Completing what might be one of the best campaign's in school history isn't out of the question.

"When we saw this group together, we knew we had the potential to be good and competitive," Sabol said.

"It was just a matter of them jelling. And now that they've jelled. They're realizing they're good."