When the first flash of lightning lit the sky over Mercer Island, Auburn Mountainview boys soccer coach Cary Davidson got a chill.

“It was right after they scored and I should have known it was an omen,” he said. “It was kind of right behind us, but the thunder hit quick.”

A more superstitious coach may have blamed the lightning, or at least the hour-long weather delay, for the Lions 3-0 loss at the hands of the No. 1 ranked Islanders in the first round of the Washington State 3A boys soccer tourney.

“We had excellent enthusiasm coming out of that (delay),” Davidson said. “It was pouring sideways, but I don’t think it (the weather) really hurt us. We played fine for the next 40 minutes, then the fastest kid I’ve ever seen in high school just ran past our defender like he was jogging. He was ridiculously fast. I think the difference in the game was just their overall team speed. And they’re a very mature team. They’ve been there, they were third last season, and they acted like it.”

Despite the loss, Davidson says the 2009 campaign, which included the team’s first ever appearance in the 3A state tourney, was a rousing success.

“We went from two wins last year, finishing near the bottom of the league and scoring a total of nine goals,” he said. “This year we scored 35 goals and had 10 wins.”

At the beginning of the season Davidson said he had no idea the Lions would be as good as they were.

“I knew we had a legitimate shot at the playoffs, but that’s about it. Nobody thought we’d finish second in league and make it to state,” Davidson said.

Even at the beginning of the year, the team didn’t show any signs of its promise and eventual 10-7-2 overall record.

“We instituted a new system: we went to zone defending and four in the back,” Davidson said. “That took a while for the guys to get used to. We had a lot of suspensions and injuries early. It was already well into the season before we had the best 11 players on the field.”

Eventually, however, the team’s work ethic and leadership shone through.

“It was a steady improvement and the guys were willing to work and work hard this year,” he said. “We had really good senior leadership with our captains Dhavan Vengadasalam, Nick Craveling and Tim Ritter. They did a great job, organizing barbecues and sleepovers and breakfasts. We really had some team building and camaraderie develop this season.”

All things the team hopes to carry over to next season, despite the loss of eight seniors, including five varsity starters.

I think we established some things that will really help, including a feeling that we can win,” Davidson said. “I told them, ‘We are now a playoff program, so this is what we do we make the playoffs.’”

“They’ll (the seniors) be hard to replace, but we have a huge sophomore class right now,” he added. “It’ll be tough to replace Nick in goal and Tim. Dhavan was selected as the league’s defensive MVP. But there are some quality kids still. We feel really great about next season already.”