SPANISH FORT, Alabama — It’s often said that defense wins championships. The question now for Spanish Fort’s Lady Toros is: Can defense defend one as well?

The 2011 5A girls state champion Lady Toros opened  defense of their statewide reign Monday night on the road at Baldwin County High, pay a visit to the Lip (Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb Stadium) to take on perennial 6A powerhouse McGill-Toolen Catholic Wednesday before their first home kickoff next Friday hosting 6A Mary G. Montgomery’s Lady Vikings.

With most of her eight returning starters defensive and midfield players, head coach Barclay Kercher will be depending on them as a somewhat less experienced forward line develops. After bringing back the 5A state runner-up trophy in 2010, Kercher said it was nice to hear and read terms like “state champs” and now “defending state champions.”

“It’s a great accomplishment and a source of pride for the program, the school, the players and for me as a coach to be able to say or hear those words like defending champions when Lady Toro soccer is talked about,” Kercher said. “It will also be very special because it’s the first female state championship brought home to Spanish Fort. But we also realize that all that being said, it’s a new season now and we have to put that behind us, move on and earn it again this year and that’s what we want to do. We did lose some major game-changer type players. So, we have to work hard and I think everyone realizes that we have to work extremely hard to stay on top.”

Sweeper Mariah King, forward combo Elissa VandeWaa (2011 state tournament MVP) and Alicia Linder (48 goals in 2011), midfielders Mallory Jayjohn and Meghan Cassady were 2011 seniors with three of them starters.

“Right now it’s a small roster but we hope to develop from our JV team.  We have 12 true varsity players with some strong, true varsity prospects I’m looking to move up after they get a little more experience under their belt. Right now that’s it, though, but we have to keep working hard to develop that JV team and then fill out our varsity roster later in the season so we will have some depth.”

Returning to anchor the defense will be junior goal keeper Johannah Scott with a pair of state title matches under her belt. She recorded 16 shutouts and 98 saves during the championship run last year. Spanish Fort only lost four games in 2011. The team will have three seniors this year, Marissa Babbs, Kathleen Mulvaney and Whitney Pittman. Other junior players with major playing time  returning include Rebekah Diring, Shannon Paaymans, Summer Stout and Jessica Watts.

“We are expecting much from Jo (Scott) because she does have the big-game experience and she is a leader — a coach on the field — for us. With her big view of the field back there, we will depend on her to communicate with everybody as well as also make the big stops she’s so good at making. We have to replace Mariah at sweeper so we don’t have all the defense back. Those are big shoes, but hopefully with Johannah’s leadership and good help back there, somebody will step up and be able to execute defensively for us and be a big presence like Mariah. Last year, our defense together with Jo allowed just 26 goals all season.”

Kickoffs are set for  6:30 p.m. at the Lip Wednesday and 6 p.m. on The Hill at SFHS Friday. The Lady Toros' first 5A Region match is at home hosting Vigor Feb. 28 at 5 p.m.