the fact is brentwood did lose many important parts of the team last year including most of the defense and midfield. now they have to replace those positions with younger players and it is going to take more than a season for them to get used to each other. they played together all year and still weren't meshing well enough to win it so it wouldn't have mattered whether they were playing a christian bros or not. they need time to get used to playing with each other and figuring out one another's strengths and weaknesses. last year, it wasn't that brentwood was amazing (even though we were ), it was the fact that we had all played with each other for years. i knew if someone messed up, i would cover them and vice versa. team chemistry is most important if you want to win. they aren't to that point yet where they know what their teammate will do before he does it, but they will be soon enough.
for those strength of schedule people, the brentwood head coach just finished his 3rd year and has been criticized for playing weak teams every year. state semifinalist, state champs, state quarterfinalist. sounds like a pretty successful program to me by any standards. i'm not gonna deny that playing harder teams will make your team better, but i think in brentwood's case this year it wouldn't have mattered. they just need a little more time playing together. with such a young team that is packed with talent, they should be doing great in the next few years.