In their first meeting of the season, Decatur High School’s boys soccer team felt like it left points on the table against Kent-Meridian High School in a scoreless draw back on March 17.

But against the Royals the second time around, Decatur fell short, despite scoring a late goal, 2-1 on April 14 at French Field.

“Games like this happen sometimes. We had a three-game winning streak coming into it, but you never know. You can’t always expect to win every game. You’re going to have games like this. These are the games that test your character at the end of the day. I want to see how we bounce back,” coach Dom Dismuke said.

Decatur, in its first season under Dismuke, had found a bit of momentum over the past week and change, winning three games in a row. The last three-game win streak was all the way back in the COVID-shortened 2021 season.

“Now we are playing better as a team. We went head to head with these guys,” Dismuke said.

Kent-Meridian had a full head of steam coming into the fixture as well. The Royals had won six games in a row and were starting to look like the team that won the NPSL last year and went to the state tournament in 2023.

The Gators’ backline was going to be tested as both Irving Baca Silva and Keilor Garcia, both Seattle Sounders Academy players, put a lot of stress on any team’s defenders.

Inside the first 15 minutes, the two sides looked evenly matched. Both Decatur and Kent-Meridian were seeing how each side was playing. Kent-Meridian’s attack plan early was to throw balls over the top and let Johnny Chino-Lopez use his speed to track it down.

In the 17th minute, Baca Silva sent a high arching pass to open space, Chino-Lopez got on the end of it and evaded Decatur’s Dylan Lang and beat Andrew Lang for the first goal. There was a bit of scrutiny from Dismuke on whether Chino-Lopez was offsides, but the goal stood.

“I personally think he was offsides after watching it back. In the run of play I didn’t see it, but stuff like that happens. You have to take it on the chin and move on to the next one at the end of the day,” Dismuke said.

After the game’s first goal, Garcia hit the post, but Decatur mounted a solid period of play after that shot. The best Decatur look came with under 10 minutes left in the half, and Jonathan Gonzalez Hernandez chipped a shot from 25 yards away and it also hit the woodwork. Decatur went into halftime wishing they were level with Kent-Meridian.

The second half started with two quick chances for the Royals, putting Decatur on its heels. The second chance, taken by Garcia, found the back of the net.

Kent-Meridian continued to roll all the way until the final minutes. But Decatur did break through in the 79th minute. A tactic change from Dismuke put more emphasis on getting players forward.

“I wanted to see us get guys forward and I don’t think we got enough of that tonight,” Dismuke said.

“In the last 10 to 15 minutes, once I switched things around, I put guys in positions to make sure we got numbers forward. It’s a bit dangerous, but we were down two goals. I think we were able to be the better team the last 10 to 15 minutes,” Dismuke said.

Jose Bonilla Ruiz found a failed clearance from Kent-Meridian and beat Edgar Govea Orozco, who came off of his line for the clearance.

But the lone goal just came too late as the game concluded two kicks later.

“Sometimes a loss isn’t a loss at the end of the day… There are going to be things we can learn from this and we will be able to move forward,” Dismuke said.

Angel Blanco races away from two Kent-Meridian defenders. Ben Ray / The Mirror