DENVER – It's Halloween Weekend at the Assembly Athletic Complex, with free admission and giveaways planned for kids in costumes on Sunday.
 
Meanwhile, the MSU Denver men's soccer team is looking to treat itself to a high finish in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, and the way the Roadrunners have been playing lately, tricks may not be needed.
 
MSU Denver plays host to CSU-Pueblo at 6 p.m. Friday and to UCCS at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. And despite a rough start to the season, and losses to the top two teams in the RMAC by a combined 10-1, the Roadrunners find themselves two wins away from potentially earning the third seed for the RMAC Tournament.
 
"We talked at the beginning of the season that finishing in the top six is a great goal, based on where we were as a program," MSU Denver coach Nick Kirchhof said. "And now we've gotten to the last week of the season and the games still mean something. That's the fun part of college soccer. The guys have put us in this position, and now it's up to us to try to take it."
 
First up, though, is a CSU-Pueblo team that is in contention for a berth in the NCAA Division II Tournament as an at-large entry as well as having its own designs on the RMAC's No. 3 seed. The ThunderWolves (12-4-1 overall, 5-3-1 RMAC) beat MSU Denver 3-0 in a non-conference game in Pueblo, Colo., on Sept. 16.
 
"They've had a good season, they've got a good team, good depth, and they're well-coached," Kirchhof said. "The good part for us is that now we have a better idea of who we are and how we want to do things. Early in the season, we were still trying to figure out relationships, players, the system, the whole thing. I think we're miles ahead of where we were the first time we played them. We're running confidently right now based on how we're playing and how the results have fallen to us.
 
"It will be great to have them here on a Friday night at home with everything on the line. The playoffs are just starting a little earlier for us."
 
Regardless of Friday's result, MSU Denver (7-8-1, 4-4) can still earn a spot in the RMAC's top six to reach the RMAC Tournament on Sunday against UCCS (8-7-1, 4-5) with a win and an upset-free weekend around the league.
 
"We've got our hands full with both teams, that's for sure," Kirchhof said. "We're obviously looking at Pueblo first and preparing for them. But we know we still have opportunities if something doesn't go our way Friday."
 
MSU Denver has gotten to this point with three straight wins, including two of them against contenders for the league's top six. The turnaround came after a 5-0 loss against Colorado Mesa on Oct. 15.
 
In fact, believe it not, it may have coming during that game against the team currently ranked No. 12 in Division II.
 
"I think it actually started in the first 20 minutes against Colorado Mesa," Kirchhof said. "Because we played some really good stuff, had a ball saved off the line when we could have gone up 1-0. I think it gave the guys confidence knowing that Mesa is a great team, but we were going toe-to-toe with them. Obviously later on they took over and showed why they've been successful.
 
"But from that Friday on we showed we could play as long as we kept fighting and working."
 
Aidan Bates leads MSU Denver with eight goals, including four game-winners, to rank second in the RMAC in both categories (as well as ninth in Division II in game-winners), and Aaron Biggerstaff scored goals in each game last weekend as the Roadrunners earned key road wins at Adams State and Fort Lewis.
 
Meanwhile, Bryson Chiles has assisted on each of the last four goals in MSU Denver's three-game winning streak and is the reigning RMAC Defender of the Week. Chiles is second in the RMAC and 22^nd in Division II with seven assists for the season.
 
"He's one of our older players," Kirchhof said. "And at his junior college he played center midfield, and in my experience as a coach, center mids usually make great fullbacks, great defenders, because they usually make good decisions and see the whole game ahead of them.
 
"He's one of the guys who came in super fit, and he's someone who is willing to play anywhere and everywhere to help the team – which I absolutely love because we've moved him around quite a bit. He's someone who works hard and doesn't come up with excuses – he finds solutions."
 
Chiles' four most recent assists have some on set pieces – three free kicks and a corner.
 
"His deliveries have been fantastic," Kirchhof said. "It shows that he put in the time and work over the summer to be prepared for this moment, and I'm really happy that it's showing up on the stat sheet as well. It's helping him, but it's also helping our team dramatically."
 
The final weekend of the regular season generally includes Senior Day festivities, but there will be none for MSU Denver since all current players still have eligibility remaining. For a team that has had three coaches over the past four seasons, things are solidifying, regardless of this weekend's outcomes.
 
"We're definitely moving in a positive direction," Kirchhof said. "Guys have been flying around in training. We were kind of bringing two separate teams together, and now everyone is trusting one another more. They have a feel for each other and their relationships are building, off the field and on the field. We knew it would take some time. And what I love is that, when it looked like our season was going in a different direction, we responded."