With its first-ever appearance at the state 3A boys soccer tournament coming last season, the expectations for the Auburn Mountainview team are much higher now.

“One of the things we do have that we’ve not had before is the attitude that we’re a playoff program,” said Lions coach Cary Davidson. “We haven’t been able to say that in the past. So now the expectation everyone has is, ‘Will we make the playoffs?’ The expectation is that we will, and that’s one of the reasons we train hard, to prolong our season.

“It’s a different attitude for us,” Davidson said. “It took us four years to get to this place.”

Last season the Lions finished second in the South Puget Sound League 3A chase with a 10-7-2 overall record and made it to the first round of the state playoffs before being bounced by Mercer Island, 3-0.

The Lions head into the season replacing seven players lost to graduation, including goalkeeper Nick Crevlin and last season’s leading scorer, Tyler Decker. The Lions also will have to do without superstar Dhavan Vengadasalam, who was the SPSL 3A MVP as a defender and was named to the all-state team.

Auburn Mountainview will look to a strong core of talented juniors, led by a smattering of senior leaders.

“We have 10 juniors, and many of them have gotten significantly better as far as players go,” Davidson said. “Potentially, we have a real competitive team.”

The key this year, according to Davidson, is getting the team’s four horsemen up to speed. Auburn Mountainview will look to juniors Donovan Gleason, Justin Flint, Sergey Rubakha and Trevor Ralph to run the offense and defense from the backfield.

“None of them have played defender before, but they’re mostly big, strong and smart players, and they’re coming together,” Davidson said. “Defending is real important and it starts with those four, but also our attack starts with those four. Our outside backs attack. I think that’s one of the reasons we had success last year. It causes a lot of chaos. So it’s very important that those four are excellent players.”

The Lions will look to sophomore goalkeeper Isaac Ferrer to hold down the fort.

“He’s young, but he’s pretty solid,” Davidson said.

For leadership, the Lions will rely on co-captains Arturo Maya-Mendoza and Tommy Finseth, an all-SPSL 3A selection last year.

Davidson likes the team’s work ethic.

“Every single player takes their training seriously, so you can’t help but get better,” he said.