As eighth-graders, the pair attended every Wildcats game to watch their brothers, former team captains Tim King and Ryan Bristol, in Weymouth’s march to the championship game in 2007, a 6-1 loss to BC High.

Four years later, the two are on a similar track: team captains on a 15-2-1 Wildcats squad pushing hard for the Super 8.

Tim and Ryan ‘‘just said it was the time of their lives,’’ said Steve Bristol. ‘‘Both of them, especially Trevor’s brother, both of them could’ve went somewhere else and played for a private school, prep school, juniors — anything. But they came back and said it was fun. Trevor’s brother said he had no regrets about staying in the public schools.’’

King said he learned a great deal from watching his brother’s team. ‘‘That group was pretty special,’’ he said. ‘‘We have a big group, a big graduating class, just like they had. When they went to the Super 8, we saw a lot of things. I think you know we’re on our way there.’’

Both standing over 6 feet, the senior defensemen have shared the captaincy with senior forward Tyler Piacentini the last two seasons. The trio, along with nine other classmates, form a tight-knit group that has played an integral role in rebuilding a Weymouth program following heavy graduation losses and the retirement of coach Bob Donovan after the 2007 season.

A number of the seniors played on the varsity as freshmen, with a few seeing regular shifts. The Wildcats have made three straight appearances in the Division 1 South tournament, each season making a deeper run. Last year, Weymouth was eliminated with a 4-1 loss to Archbishop Williams.

‘‘I think we have a legitimate shot at making [the Super 8],’’ said fourth-year coach Matt Cataldo, a Hingham native who played collegiately at Salve Regina. ‘‘A lot of it is going to come down to how we finish the season. I think we’re in good shape right now record-wise and with who we’ve beaten and who we’ve competed with.’’

Cataldo intentionally scheduled a challenging slate of nonleague games this year with aspirations of competing for a Super 8 berth. Weymouth travels to St. Mary’s of Lynn on Saturday, plays Catholic Memorial on Monday, and then hosts Central Catholic a week from today. The Wildcats own a 3-1 win over Marshfield (9-2-4) and split a two-game series against Hingham (10-4-4).

‘‘We started the first two years playing kind of weak games,’’ said Piacentini, a 5-foot-6 forward who has a team-leading 26 goals and 26 assists. ‘‘Now our schedule is tough. I think we have one of the best schedules in [the Bay State Conference]. When the playoffs do come around, we should be ready.’’

Collectively, this senior class has played hockey together since the instructional level. They’ve built a special bond with Cataldo.

‘‘This group of seniors is just a great group of kids,’’ Cataldo said. ‘‘They’re very hard-working during the season and in the off-season. They’re constantly in the weight room. During the summer and the spring, they’re skating four to five days a week. This has been something we’ve been building towards. They’re a very, very, very hungry group.

‘‘Over the course of their four years, they’ve gotten much, much better as hockey players — much smarter. From a coaching standpoint, it’s been fun. We started at the basics when they were freshmen and we’ve just kind of been building up and now we’re working on things that maybe some teams don’t even worry about.’’

While Piacentini steals the headlines offensively, and King and Bristol do the dirty work defensively, Cataldo says less-heralded players, such as senior forward Nick Peatfield, make the Wildcats well rounded.

‘‘He’s a third-line center,’’ said the coach. ‘‘He converted his sophomore year from a defenseman to a forward and he’s just done a great job. He’s the type of kid you need on a team who’s not going to complain about ice time. He’s not going to complain about who he’s playing with. He just works so hard.’’

If a Super 8 does not materialize, the Wildcats will focus on a Division 1 title. Either way, the seniors don’t want their final season together to end any time soon.

‘‘This is the closest team I’ve ever been on,’’ Piacentini said. ‘‘All the kids, there’s a great group of us, we hang out a lot.’’

‘‘That’s the one thing Coach was saying,’’ Bristol added. ‘‘We’re tight-knit even more so than that group [from the 2007 Super 8]. They had all the skill in the world but they weren’t as close as us.’’

B-R dethroned but still potent

Another senior-heavy team looking to make a playoff statement is Bridgewater-Raynham (10-4-1). But for the first time in the careers of the nine Trojan seniors, B-R will not enter the Division 1 South tournament riding the coattails of an Old Colony League championship.

League rival Barnstable (11-1-3, 5-0 OCL) effectively dethroned the three-time defending OCL champs with a very physical 3-1 win Saturday afternoon.

‘‘We’ve had a little bit of a problem even dating back to last year’s [first-round] tournament loss to Marshfield — like in big games against solid goaltenders — finding a way to score goals,’’ Bridgewater-Raynham coach Mark Jones said.

Despite B-R’s number of seniors, the Trojans entered the season relatively inexperienced.

‘‘We did lose our top line from last year, all the scorers we had,’’ Jones said. ‘‘But we’ve got nine seniors and a lot of quality hockey players and they’re doing well.’’

Around the rink

Westwood has won nine games in a row since a late December loss to Canton. The Wolverines should be one of the top seeds in the Division 3 South boys’ tournament along, with probable South Shore league champ Abington/East Bridgewater (14-1-1). ... The Mansfield and Canton boys should be among the top seeds in Division 2 South.