With five regular season games remaining before the playoffs, the Arapahoe boys soccer team has nicely set themselves up for a playoff run. The Warriors have won six straight games putting them at 8-2 which has them ranked eighth in Colorado. They will play the Eaglecrest Raptors on Tuesday.

The Warriors have grown a lot as a team since their first game on August 25th against Rangeview. Although their stats have improved and they have scored 15 more goals than they’ve allowed, it has been in an immeasurable category that ABK has grown the most in.

“We have definitely grown in team chemistry,” senior Caleb Loring said. “At the beginning of the season we had a little trouble meshing and our record from the beginning shows that. Now that we are figuring out our own team, we look good and we’re on a good winning streak.”

ABK has dominated their last six games and have only allowed six goals while scoring an impressive 17 goals during the stretch.  They have won all six and captain Evan Bunch accredits this to the team’s increasing confidence.

“One of the big things for us is that we’ve really started to believe in ourselves,” Bunch said. “We believe that we can win these games and when we all buy into that idea, things just start to click and we can make things happen.”

They face the rival Cherry Creek Bruins at home on Thursday. The Bruins are 7-1 and are ranked third in the state.  

“We’re very excited,” Loring said. “They are doing great this year and we are ready to show them what ABK is all about and hopefully give them their first in state loss of the season.”

The Warriors may be ranked lower than the Bruins, but they present a tough matchup and they refuse to be overlooked.

“We want to be intense and composed in the way we play,” Bunch said. “We just want to try and play our game the way we play and not let the other team, refs or anything else put off our focus.”

After Thursday, Arapahoe has three games before they attempt to make a deep playoff run. They play Smoky Hill at home on October 10th, Cherokee Trail on the 13th on the road and they will finish the regular season at home versus Overland on the 18th . The team has high expectations for this stretch, especially considering how they have been playing lately.

“We feel that if we can keep up this winning mentality, we are completely capable of doing great things this season and into the playoffs,” Bunch said.

Check back to arapahoextra.com for updates and scores as the season continues.