For a few minutes, Auburn Mountainview girls soccer coach Cary Davidson dared to believe.

After tying up the score at 1-1 in the second round of the state Class 3A tournament contest against powerhouse Bellevue (16-3) Saturday, the Lions (17-4) seemed poised to send the game into a shootout.

“It was going our way,” Davidson said. “We had the ball most of the time in the last few minutes. Things were looking good. And there is no question we would have beat them in [a shootout]. Our keepers are much better, and goalkeeper is Bellevue’s weakest spot.

“Then she (Bellevue senior Clarice Bruch) hit a one-in-a-million shot,” he continued. “It went in the upper corner of the goal, the only place Rachel (Fieser) couldn’t reach it. It was shocking, unbelievable. It was like slow motion, like the end of a movie.”

Although the loss ended Auburn Mountainview’s season, Davidson said he was proud of the way his team battled.

“Bellevue is a good team, they’ve got a couple of national team players and they’re just highly skilled,” Davidson said.

“But like every game we’ve been in this year, we just worked. We weren’t about to quit. (The team) worked and worked and held them scoreless until 25 minutes left in the game.”

Bellevue’s Isabelle Butterfield notched the Wolverines first goal of the game at the 55 minute mark on an assist from Sabrina Mohazzabfar.

The Lions responded when Lion senior Sophia Wagner tied the game up at 1-1 with four minutes left in the match.

Auburn Mountainview’s appearance was the team’s third state tourney appearance, and the first time the team has made it past the first round. The Lions lost to Everett 1-0 in 2007 and to Mercer Island 2-1 in 2010.

Auburn Mountainview converted all five penalty kicks to beat Shorecrest in a shootout, 1-0, in a first-round state match at Auburn Memorial Stadium on Nov. 13.

Delene Colburn, Kellcy Emory, Emilee Greve, Madi Clarkson and Sophie Wagner made penalty kicks for the Lions, who won their first state match in school history.

The loss eliminated the five-time state champion Scots.

“We had a great season,” Davidson said of this year’s squad. “We won the SPSL 3A convincingly. The only teams we lost to this year were all ranked teams. We had 17 wins. The most we’ve ever had before was 13. It was an outstanding year.”