Some of the biggest Colorado girls soccer games coming down home stretch

With less than two weeks remaining in the girls soccer regular season, trying to decipher the standings in a handful of leagues is enough to make a person's head spin.

The Class 5A Front Range League features five teams with at least seven league victories, and five teams in the top 18 in the most recent RPI standings. With those programs about to play essentially a round-robin against one another, the final outcome may not be decided until the final day of the season.

Then there is the 5A Continental League, where four teams – each of which is in the top 10 in RPI and ranked in the top eight of the CHSAANow.com polls – are still in the title hunt. With a combined six league ties between them though, this week will go a long way toward determining a champion.

That's to say nothing of Class 4A, where maybe the single-biggest game yet to be played, regardless of classification, could turn the RPI around for a handful of teams. Top-ranked and RPI-leading Valor Christian (Highlands Ranch) visits fourth-ranked Wheat Ridge on May 2 at Lakewood Memorial Field to determine the 4A Jeffco League title.



So, with the postseason set to begin on May 9 for 5A and 2A, the action is most certainly about to heat up. Here is a look at some of the biggest games yet to come down the stretch:

Class 5A
Front Range League
A log-jam at the top of the standings that includes two league unbeatens (Fossil Ridge (Fort Collins) at 8-0 and Broomfield at 7-0) and two one-loss teams (Rocky Mountain (Fort Collins) and Legacy (Broomfield) at 7-1) will undoubtedly break up by this weekend.
On Thursday, Rocky Mountain visits Broomfield and Fossil Ridge travels south to take on Legacy. Just two days later, Broomfield makes the trek up I-25 to take on an undefeated Sabercats squad that leads the league with 57 goals this season.
Rocky Mountain meets Legacy on May 2, and Legacy still has to play city-rival Broomfield on May 4.
Fairview (Boulder) (7-2), which dropped league contests to Broomfield and Monarch (Louisville), still has games against Fossil Ridge and Rocky Mountain, but would need quite a bit of help to climb to the top.

Continental League
Mathematicians may need to apply to sort this out. ThunderRidge (Highlands Ranch) (5-0-1 in league play) leads the way, followed closely by Chaparral (Parker) (5-0-3). Those two teams played to a 2-2 tie back on April 13.
Mountain Vista (Highlands Ranch) (8-2-1) is in third but actually leads the 5A RPI standings by a narrow margin over Cherry Creek (Greenwood Village). The Golden Eagles lost to ThunderRidge and played to a tie against Chaparral before defeating fourth-place Regis Jesuit (Aurora) (4-1-1) in overtime on April 13.
Confused yet? If not, just wait. The Raiders, who were knotted up at 1-1 on Monday by Ponderosa (Parker), have yet to play ThunderRidge and Chaparral. Those two games come later this week.

Other leagues:
A 2-0 victory by Columbine (Littleton) over Ralston Valley (Arvada) on April 19 put the Rebels in the driver's season in 5A Jeffco. Columbine still has to meet up with rival Chatfield (Littleton) on Friday, and a Chargers victory could lead to a three-way tie for the league crown … A 1-1 tie between Cherry Creek and defending state champion Grandview (Aurora) could have led to a share of the Centennial League title, but the Wolves fell to Smoky Hill (Aurora) 2-1 just two days later. The Bruins can wrap up the Centennial with victories over Smoky Hill and Cherokee Trail (Aurora) … Prairie View (Henderson) is one of only three unbeaten in the 5A ranks, but still needs to get past Rangeview (Aurora) on Thursday to clinch the East Metro crown.

Class 4A
Jeffco League
After clashing in three state title games, and last season's quarterfinal round, it's only right that Wheat Ridge (11-1, 5-0) and Valor Christian (9-0, 5-0) play to decide another league title.
The two teams meet at 7 p.m. on May 2 to do exactly that. The Eagles have scored a league-high 18 goals during Jeffco play, and the Farmers have allowed a league-fewest two goals against them.

Pikes Peak League
Defending state champion Lewis-Palmer (Monument) (10-1, 4-0) is currently sitting second in RPI and has outscored its previous six opponents by a 24-0 margin. But in order to lock up the Pikes Peak title, the Rangers still have to get past Cheyenne Mountain (Colorado Springs) (5-5, 2-1) on Thursday. The rivals met for the 2015 state championship.

Other leagues:
While undefeated The Classical Academy (Colorado Springs) has nearly sewn up the Colorado Springs Metro title, the Titans still have non-league games with Cheyenne Mountain and Valor Christian on their schedule … Windsor has outscored its past four Tri-Valley League foes by a 36-0 margin, and victories over Mead (Longmont) and Skyline (Longmont) would clinch the league title … Centaurus (Lafayette) is the only undefeated team remaining in the Northern League, but Northridge (Greeley) stands in the way of a league title for the Warriors. The two teams meet tonight … Pueblo Centennial and Pueblo West tangle on May 2 at Dutch Clark Stadium to determine the South Central championship.

Class 3A
Region 6
Top-ranked and RPI-leading Jefferson Academy (Broomfield) (11-1-1, 6-1) has the tiebreaker over Peak to Peak (Lafayette) thanks to a 5-3 victory over the Pumas earlier this month. Peak to Peak (10-2, 6-1) in turn defeated Colorado Academy (Denver) (the only team to defeat the Jaguars) to stay in the league chase. The league currently owns four of the six spots in the 3A RPI standings.



Region 2
A 1-0 victory over Colorado Springs Christian earlier this season has No. 2 Manitou Springs knocking on the door of a league title. The Mustangs play Salida (7-3, 3-1) on Thursday hoping to avoid a three-way tie at the top of the league standings.

Region 3
Basalt, Coal Ridge (New Castle) and Vail Mountain occupy spots 15, 16 and 18 in the RPI standings, but the Region 3 title is still up for grabs. Vail Mountain (8-1, 7-0) plays Basalt (9-2, 6-0) on May 2, and takes on Coal Ridge (6-4, 4-1) one day later. Basalt defeated Coal Ridge in overtime earlier this season.

Other leagues:
The Academy (Westminster), whose only blemish this season came to Jefferson Academy, can wrap up Region 7 with a victory over Sheridan (Denver) on Thursday … Denver Science & Tech Stapleton secured the Region 8 title with a victory over KIPP Denver Collegiate last week.

Class 2A
Denver Christian (11-1, 3-0) scored a big victory and moved to the top of the 2A RPI standings with a 5-0 victory over previous undefeated Dawson School (Lafayette) (8-1, 2-1) on April 20 … Rocky Mountain Lutheran (Denver) (7-2) is currently second in RPI but still has to play Dawson School on May 1 … Fountain Valley (Colorado Springs) (6-3, 2-0 in Region 1) and Evangelical Christian (Colorado Springs) (7-3, 2-1) meet to determine that league's top spot May 4.