They danced.<\/p>\n
They celebrated.<\/p>\n
And if you didn\u2019t know any better, you may have thought the Kent-Meridian boys soccer team won the state championship on Friday night at French Field. For the Royals and their fans, the feeling proved just as good as a state championship.<\/p>\n
Ka Mar Din scored unassisted in the 42nd minute and goalkeeper Jose Campos proved stingy as ever in goal as Kent-Meridian knocked off Kentwood 1-0 in the South Puget Sound League North Division finale for both teams.<\/p>\n
As for the celebration \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was something I have not seen before. You would have thought we won the state playoffs,\u201d Kent-Meridian coach Brian Gabert said. \u201cThey knew the significance of it \u2026 it was just a rowdy atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
And understandably so as the Royals came into the night with a goose egg sitting in the win column. The only point Kent-Meridian had registered in the standings leading up to Friday\u2019s win came thanks to a 1-1 tie with Federal Way on April 21.<\/p>\n
But this K-M bunch would not be denied.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just in shock,\u201d Gabert said. \u201cA lot of times, you walk off the field and say, \u2018Had this happened or that happened (we would have won).\u2019 Well, finally things fell our way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, however, might be an understatement.<\/p>\n
It was Kent-Meridian\u2019s first win since April 25, 2006, when it knocked off former SPSL North foe Enumclaw 2-1. That\u2019s a winless streak of 49-straight matches.<\/p>\n
Though the Royals certainly have come close since that win over Enumclaw more than two years ago. Matter of fact, they\u2019ve mustered seven ties during that stretch.<\/p>\n
But not a single win until Friday night.<\/p>\n
Outside of Campos\u2019 strong play in goal and the timely score by Din from six yards out, sweeper Tyrone Castro and fullback Hiep Nguyen, among others, also delivered strong performances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a big party atmosphere afterward,\u201d Gabert said. \u201cTo me, it felt like winning a state championship. When you reach for your goals and get them, it\u2019s a great thing. It doesn\u2019t matter how many wins you have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
They danced. They celebrated. And if you didn\u2019t know any better, you may have thought the Kent-Meridian boys soccer team won the state championship on Friday night at French Field. For the Royals and their fans, the feeling proved just as good as a state championship. Ka Mar Din scored unassisted in the 42nd minute […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-5674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5674"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=5674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}