WILLIAMSTON — The Pam Pack soccer team bordered the bus back home Monday night beaming with confidence after routing Riverside, 9-0, to move Washington over the .500 mark for the first time this season.

In the midst of a rebuilding year, the winless Knights, who field seven freshmen starters, were hardly a test for head coach Jim Kozuch’s defense, one that has gone through a complete overhaul over the last two weeks.

With a new formation, new positioning and amplified communication, the Pam Pack seems to have finally found its identity. After beginning the season 1-3, the team has won four of its last five games, including wins against three quality teams — Edenton Holmes, D.H. Conley and Jordan-Matthews.

In last week’s Thursday night game against the Vikings, a scoreless first half that would have discouraged the team two weeks ago only seemed to inject the offense with adrenaline. Learning from their mistakes through the first 40 minutes, Holt McKeithan and Dylan Singleton silenced the Conley forwards in the second half, while Kyle Hodges and a collection of midfielders combined for five goals.

With defenseman William Page taking on a more offensive role in the midfield, forward Leo Brown converting to a defender and Miguel Hernandez finding his niche on the wing, Washington is turning its season around without its best player, midfielder Lupe Barrera, who is recovering a series of minor injuries and fatigue through a strenuous first couple weeks.

“I think that we’re a better team with him, of course, because he’s a great player, but at the same time, I think that some other guys have realized that with him gone, they need to step up their play,” Kozuch said.

And they have. The team is scoring more and giving up fewer goals since Barrera’s injury, as each player seems to have finally discovered their role. But the decision to completely alter the complexion of the team did not come easy.

“So far, it’s been positive,” Kozuch said. “At first, I was a little more nervous, thinking we would become weak in the back, but (Brown) has picked up the slack on defense. The whole flip-flopping positions has been a seamless transition. They’ve been great in each other’s spots.”

With winning soccer has come an involuntary shift in poise and attitude. The pulse of the team, Kozuch said, has changed along with the formation.

Coming off a near perfect summer in Greenville’s 7-on-7 soccer league, the team was confident, maybe even overconfident, heading into the start of the season. Bound by the idea that goals would come easy, even against great teams, Washington did not mirror its summer performance over the first few weeks of the season.

“I think that they were starting to second guess themselves a little bit. They needed to,” Kozuch said. “I wasn’t seeing the confidence that I saw during the summer. The whole reason we schedule these tough games in the beginning is to find where are weaknesses are, so we can try to correct them before we see these teams down the line.”

The idea is to not make the same mistakes twice and so far, in the team’s rematches with J.H. Rose, Conley and Riverside, there’s been vast improvement. With Barrera returning next week and conference play on the horizon, fans have yet to see the best from the Pam Pack.

Although Washington breezed through conference play last season, the team lost nine seniors to graduation, fielding an almost complete different team this year. As for their Eastern Plains opponents, they’ve only improved.

Beddingfield, which finished in second place with a 9-7-4 record, is primed for another solid year and North Pitt, a team that made it to the third round of the state playoffs, returns virtually its entire starting lineup.

Even with tougher competition, Washington is still the undisputed favorite to take the Eastern Plains Conference for the second consecutive year.

“They all know they need to continue gelling. I look forward to them pitching some shutouts. I think they’re good enough to challenge them to give up less than five goals through the entire conference,” Kozuch said. “I think that they’re going to have a lot success.”

Washington opens up conference play at home Monday against Farmville Central.