Auburn Mountainview can’t complete comeback against Kent-Meridian

Published 5:37 pm Tuesday, April 14, 2026

In the first half of the season, Auburn Mountainview’s boys soccer team had been on cruise control. But now, the Lions have lost two of their last three after falling to Kent-Meridian 2-1 on April 13.

“We’ve had a lot of growth as a team over this period. I am hoping we learn from this and come back even stronger than before,” head coach Donovan Gleason said.

The Royals and Auburn Mountainview have played some extremely competitive games dating back to last season. A 3-3 draw followed by a 2-1 Kent-Meridian win and then an Auburn Mountainview 3-1 win back on March 17 set a high standard for the Monday night affair.

Auburn Mountainview was without a crucial piece in Ben Yitbarek, as they have for the past three games. Back on April 3 after a 5-1 win over Todd Beamer High School, Yitbarek was shown a straight red card following the conclusion of the game.

“It has been hard without him, he is our orchestrator on defense. We have had to figure things out without him,” Gleason said. “

Yitbarek is a huge cog in the machine that is Auburn Mountainview. He’s not blowing away scorer sheets with a plethora of goals, but he controls the game. As a defending midfielder, he marks the most lethal attacker on the opposing side while simultaneously coordinating the rest of his defenders.

“He steers the boat, basically. Having him back is going to have a big impact,” Toscano said.

Since his suspension, Auburn Mountainview is 1-2 with losses to White River and now Kent-Meridian, with a win against Thomas Jefferson High School sandwiched between them.

“These games are very important. I always look forward to these games,” Benji Toscano said. “They always push us to play better every time we play.”

Kent-Meridian scored the game’s first goal in the 10th minute. Davyan Martinez drove down the right side and sent a cross in front of the goal and Delano Velario deflected the ball into the back of the net.

In almost identical fashion, Martinez created the next opportunity for the Royals. Right before the halftime whistle, Martinez sent a pass to Kai Lah for the game deciding goal. “The thing that annoyed me the most was we were not picking up in the middle. We had three or four guys in the area and they still got the ball freely,” Gleason said.

It took a halftime jolt for Auburn Mountainview to get on the scoreboard. One difference was moving up Ian Knox to the midfield area from his center back position.

“Ian has stepped up tremendously. Putting him at midfield changed the game, we’ve got to find out how to get him off the backline,” Gleason said.

Some positive play from freshman Chase Bennion and Benji Toscano, who scored his third goal of the season against Kent-Meridian.

Toscano’s 63rd minute goal initiated momentum for the Lions as the rest of the game was a constant barrage of attacks to try and put the game on level terms. But the Kent-Meridian goalkeeping held on and handed Auburn Mountainview their second loss in a month.

Auburn Mountainview remain at the top of the 3A NPSL with 24 points and sit two points ahead of Decatur and three in front of Kent-Meridian. Their next game is against Enumclaw on April 15 at home.