In some ways, his 14th season in charge of Owens Community College's soccer program kindles memories for coach Art Johnson of when he started the team in 1998.

"This is probably the highest number of freshmen I've had who have been able to start since my first year," Johnson said.

Nine of the 11 Owens starters are freshmen.

Fifteen of the 21-member roster are first-year players.

Johnson's inaugural season, of course, required leaning heavily on newcomers to get the program off the ground.

However, Johnson's first Express team and his latest are far apart in performance on the field.

In its first season the Express finished 5-11-1 overall and 3-7-0 in the Ohio Community College Athletic Conference.

The team finished fourth in the conference.

This year's team completed the first month of this season with an overall record of 7-3 and the standing of first in league play with a 6-3 conference record.

A recent 3-0 victory over Lakeland Community College extended an impressive early season win streak to five in a row.

Sophomore forward Novak Vuk Janicic, an international student from Belgrade, has been a major contributor, with a team-high eight goals and four assists in 10 outings.

But many others have done their part to help the Express put together the surprising first half of the season. Many played the game in high school locally.

Area prep standouts on this year's Express roster include Jacob Olman (Maumee), Alexander Klever and Jeff Cooperider (Northview), Alec Heifferon and Troy Thompson (Anthony Wayne), Kyle Whitmore (Start), Travis Turner (Springfield), Alexander Smith (Perrysburg), Blake Niemiec (Otsego), Shane Bloom (Swanton), Sean Kaighin (Clay), and Dillon Lemley (Southview).

Olman, a 6-foot-3 freshman, has made an immediate impact as the starting goalkeeper.

He's registered four shutouts during the five-game win streak.

The former All-Northern Lakes League player has made steady progress adjusting to playing at the collegiate level, Johnson said.

"He has good size and he plays to it," Johnson said. "I was impressed with him in high school because he was a four-sport athlete. He was very athletic, quite vocal and quite a leader."

Johnson said others, such as Klever, a freshman, as well as Turner and Kaighin, both sophomores, have consistently produced on the field in ways that can't be gauged only by statistics.

Kaighin, a forward, said he believes the early success has the team motivated to produce a season to remember.

He said he's already convinced this year's team is better than last year's, who finished 11-10-0 overall and 2-4-0 in conference matches.

"We've got a lot more talent in a lot more positions this year," Kaighin said. "We've also got a lot of good team camaraderie.

"We're definitely in better shoes than we were in last year."

Contact Donald Emmons at: demmons@theblade, 419-724-6302, or on Twitter @demmons.

First Published September 28, 2011, 4:15 a.m.