For the past two seasons, the Auburn Mountainview boys soccer team has made it to the promised land, only to be turned away at the gate.

The Lions finished with a 13-6-1 record and qualified for last year’s state 3A playoffs, only to lose to Mount Si 4-0 in the first round. The year before, Auburn Mountainview was bounced in the first round, falling 3-0 to Mercer Island.

“Both of the last two years, we gave up some goals (at state),” coach Cary Davidson said. “Once you get there, you can’t give up any goals. You have to assume you’re going to win 1-0. But I think we have the guys this year to get us into the next round.”

This season Mountainview looks to a strong core of seniors, led by co-captains Sergei Rubakha and Aldo Zamora, to get them back to the state tournament and past the first game.

Rubakha, a first-team All-South Puget Sound League 3A selection on defense, anchors the Lions with Zamora (six goals and three assists in 2010) looking to make up for the loss of forward Arturo Maya-Mendoza (to graduation) at the midfield spot.

“They’re a couple of the best leaders that we’ve had,” Davidson said of his co-captains. “Just outstanding young men in every way … leadership, great players, work hard all the time.”

In the forward position, the Lions will lean on returning All-SPSL 3A first-teamer Issac Cardoza, who notched 13 goals and 10 assists last season. Cardoza already has scored nine goals this season.

“Issac is just a highly skilled goal scorer,” Davidson said.

The offense is running in high gear. The 6-2 Lions have scored 31 times this season.

Davidson said the real challenge is shoring up the defense. So far this spring, the Lions have given up 15 goals.

“We need to get a little better defensively,” Davidson said. “We’re giving up goals, and we don’t want to give any up. We need to get better at that. That’s the biggest thing. We need to just get a little tighter.”

Between the pipes, the Lions will rely on senior Solomon Lockhart and freshman Alex Fausko to pick up the slack for departed goalkeeper Isaac Ferrer (transfer).

“They’re both different kids, but they’re sharing time,” Davidson said. “Alex has that good training from his club teams. And Solomon is really brave, a real hard worker and good kid. I’m waiting for one of them to step up and see who it’s going to be.”

With an improved defense, the Lions will be equipped and hungry for state glory.

“I think that if we can fix that, we can get to state again and get past the first round,” Davidson said.