Oscar Vik’s tenacity has helped make him a mainstay on the back line for the Princeton Day School boys’ soccer team.

But as the senior defender heads down the stretch of his PDS career, that quality has been put to use at the offensive end of the field.

Coming into Panthers’ Prep B opening round contest against visiting Golda Och last Thursday, Vik had goals in three of the last four games for PDS.

Vik kept up his scoring surge, scoring a second half goal as third-seeded PDS pulled away to a 4-1 win over sixth-seeded Golda Och.

“I won the interception and they kept stepping back,” said Vik, reflecting on his tally.

“I played it to Marco [Pinheiro], he played it back to me, and whenever I can, I like to score goals. Playing defense, you don’t get a lot of chances.”

In assessing his recent scoring surge, Vik said it came down to desire and a connection with the skilled Pinheiro.

“I guess I just really wanted goals,” said a smiling Vik. “All of the other ones have been on corners; Marco and I have some things set up.”

Bouncing back from a 3-11-3 campaign in 2013, PDS has shown a lot of progress this fall as it will bring an 11-5-2 record into its Prep B semifinal clash at second-seeded Morristown-Beard on October 30.

“This has been our best chance since I was a freshman to do something,” said Vik, who scored another goal as sixth-seeded PDS topped 11th-seeded Trenton 3-0 in the opening round of the Mercer County Tournament last Saturday and then fell 5-0 to third-seeded Steinert in the MCT quarters on Monday.

“It has been more pressure but we are more together as a team. I think we definitely think we can win the Prep B and we can really challenge in the MCTs. All I really want is to win one of those.”

In Vik’s view, the team’s turnaround has been the product of a more hard-nosed mentality.

“It is a lot of the same guys but it is a new maturity,” added Vik, whose twin brother, Christian, also stars on the PDS backline.

“The kids have been able to take responsibility and understand what we have to change to be better.”

PDS head coach Malcolm Murphy acknowledged that it took his team a while to find its groove in the win over Golda Och.

“It was the jitters, they just wanted to try and get the first goal and relax,” said Murphy.

“I think in the second half, we changed the tactics a little bit. We put players out there who were capable of holding the ball a little bit better. We moved Marco back in the middle. Instead of trying to get to a 4-2-4 with four across the top, we tried to keep four across the middle to keep possession.”

Murphy is happy with how Vik has put himself in the middle of the action at both ends of the field.

“Oscar has really had a tremendous season running it from the back end,” said Murphy.

“To be honest, I did not know that he was that good on the ball or all that good in the air. He has turned himself around tremendously, he’s got some great goals. He is very good in the air, it is something that we hadn’t really seen because we like to keep the ball on the ground. He has great tenacity at the back, he plays clean.”

For Murphy, it has been great to see his squad improve so much from last fall.

“Last year, we had the injuries that just took us out,” said Murphy. “This year, we have come back from the injuries. This group was fairly young last year, there were too many breakdowns because of their insecurity. This year, they are more confident and more mature. That’s what it is, there is a lot more confidence.”

The Panthers will need that confidence in order to make a run at the Prep B title.

“It comes down to your back four, sometimes when you go away and you are in a different environment, it is a different game,” said Murphy. “If we stay composed and play our game, we can keep the ball. If we have got it, they can’t score. We’ll see from there.”

Vik, for his part, is confident that PDS will keep playing its game to the end. “I think we need to stick to our game, we can’t get pulled out when it is not going our way,” said Vik.

“We have to focus on what we can do well and we have to take our chances when we get them.”