DENVER – The MSU Denver men's soccer team has its sights set on postseason play, and the path there is the Roadrunners' to set. 
 
"The energy is that we are within striking distance of anybody," Metropolitan State University of Denver coach Hank Lewis said. "And each of the teams we played that are above us, I think we have shown that we can run with them."
 
Lewis and the Roadrunners are looking to stay locked in and focused to round out the campaign, and face two of the top three teams in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference – Regis and Westminster -- in their final four regular-season games.
 
But first the Roadrunners (6-7-1 overall and 4-5-1 for eighth place in the RMAC) have a key home matchup Friday at 3 p.m. against UCCS (5-7-1, 4-6 for ninth) at the Regency Athletic Complex.
 
MSU Denver wraps up the home weekend with a 1 p.m. game Sunday against Regis (8-5-1, 7-3 and third). The Roadrunners won a non-conference matchup with the Rangers 1-0 in overtime on Sept. 13.
 
There are two weekends left in the regular season, and then the top six teams advance to the RMAC Tournament. Though the Roadrunners, with 13 points, are only three points out of fifth, the three teams immediately ahead of them (CSU-Pueblo, Dixie State and Fort Lewis) hold the tiebreaker advantage due to head-to-head wins – so does fourth-place Colorado Mesa.
 
That puts wins at a premium.
 
"We need to win every game, which is obvious," Lewis said. "But our focus is on how many more goals can we generate to help build that momentum."
 
MSU Denver is averaging 1.7 goals per game, middle of the pack in the RMAC.
 
However, the Roadrunners have multiple options who have stepped forward. Defender Benjamin Brill has a team-high four goals, while Yannick Schad, Jaime Gutierrez and Jerry Gutierrez all have three. Twelve players have scored goals this season.
 
The Roadrunners hope to build a culture of success while extending a streak of reaching the RMAC Tournament to 17 seasons. They have competed in the NCAA Tournament four times in that same stretch.
 
"I think we came out of the (Colorado School of) Mines game on Friday pretty confident," said Lewis, referring to a 2-0 loss against the RMAC's first-place team.  "That confidence really continued into the Sunday game. The emphasis is on playing well, win or lose."
 
That was in evidence in confidence-building 4-0 victory at South Dakota Mines on Sunday. Colorado School of Mines, meanwhile, moved into the NCAA Division II rankings at No. 18 this week.
 
Jerry Gutierrez and Schad both had two assists in the win over South Dakota Mines. Schad, Iganacio Salas, Brill and Bryce Montes all scored goals.
 
"Even though we lost at Colorado School of Mines, the two games this past weekend represent two of our better games this season," Lewis said.