It’s not that last season was a bad one for the Auburn Riverside boys soccer team.

The team finished the year with the South Puget Sound League 3A Division title and amassed a 15-2-2 overall record along the way.

Individually, the team was successful as well, with the SPSL honoring forward Oscar Diaz as the league’s offensive player of the year and recognizing coach Robyn Saarenas as co-coach of the year.

But through all of the team’s success last season – including an appearance in the Washington State 3A tournament – Saarenas knew the team could do better. She was reminded of that every time she looked down the sideline and saw junior Matt Zeman in street clothes rather than on the field helping lead the team as a midfielder.

After a promising sophomore year in which he was honored with a SPSL 3A first team, all-league selection, Zeman found himself on the sidelines just one game into the season.

“Matt suffered a posterior cruciate ligament injury just one league game into his junior year,” Saarenas said. “He only played a couple games and was still named to the SPSL 3A all-league second team last season.”

“It was the very beginning of the season, the first league game,” Zeman said. “I was playing up front and went one-on-one with a goalie, and he took out my knee. It tore my PCL and bowed my bone. It was instant pain. I thought it might have been broken.”

Now a senior, Zeman is back, fully recovered from a rare surgery that repaired the ligament and ready to help lead a talented group of Ravens that includes Diaz, midfielder Shane Gutierrez and goalkeepers Matt Baumann and Derek Hawn, all determined to battle their way through the SPSL 4A North Division.

“Last year was really tough. I just wanted to get in and play,” Zeman said. “Every time we were down, I just wanted to get in and play. It was the worst feeling.”

“This year, I want us to win league and maybe stay undefeated and make it further than we did last year in the playoffs,” he said. “We have more potential this year.”

The key to the team’s success this year rests squarely on the shoulders of Zeman and fellow mid Gutierrez, who is also back to 100 percent after breaking his arm in a car accident just four weeks before the beginning of the season.

“They have the ability to take over a game, especially when they play together,” Saarenas said. “Matt is more defensive, where Shane is more offensive. But they are really good possession-type players.

“Matt may be the one who stops the other team, but Shane is the one we want the ball to go through,” she added. “He’s very crafty on the ball and can get some good shots. He’sreally been taught how to strike the ball well.”

Saarenas said that in addition to their physical skills, the duo shares an uncommon bond on and off the field.

“I have trouble not talking about them as a pair,” she said.

“We’re friends off the field also,” Gutierrez said. “We grew up together in Enumclaw and both moved down here. I think it (our friendship) helps on the field. We’d do anything for each other, just like off the field.”

The team will need that bond, and everything else they can muster this season as they make their way through a brutal SPSL 4A North schedule.

“There is a little more competition now,”Saarenas said. “Just the 4A league we’re in, there are no weak teams. Every game you have to fight for. Sometimes if you’re a stronger team, you can look and say, ‘that’s a win.’ I just don’t see that in any of the teams this season. But I’m a competitive person, so I like that. It makes the team better.”

“It’s a lot more competitive this year with better players,” Zeman said. “It’s not a walk through like last year. Every team is a challenge. You have to be mentally focused.”

“Our goal for the team is to win the league again, even if it is the 4A,” Gutierrez added. “And I want to go deeper in the state tournament. I was disappointed last year. But I think we have the team to do it this year.”

“Our team goal is always to play possession soccer,” Saarenas said. “We’re still trying to work on the ideal game, and we’re going to get there. We’re going to have to work a little harder than last year. The potential is there. We just have to have a big heart.”

As of Tuesday, the Ravens were 4-0-3, with a match scheduled against Kentlake on Wednesday. Results were unavailable at press time.

Auburn Riverside will host Kent-Meridian at 7:30 p.m., April 14 at Auburn Riverside High School.