Matt Karn is still a young man, but even he feels like getting back to his roots sometimes.
That’s when the Pueblo Centennial senior and his friends drag out two big trash cans and portable lights from their garages before hopping the fence and playing four-on-four soccer into the night on a nearby tennis court.
That’s old school. That’s finding your soul.
“We realize why we play is to have fun,” Karn said. “It’s a good way to bring back all those feelings.”
Memory Lane is a popular street of late for the Bulldogs (4-0), ranked No. 4 in The Denver Post/9News Class 4A poll. It’s a reminder of how far they have come under the guidance of longtime coach Jeff Sterling, while also validating their place as legitimate title contenders following years of knocking on the championship door.
Already brimming with a seasoned senior class that went to the state quarterfinals as juniors and semifinals as sophomores, the Bulldogs got four quality transfers from neighboring Pueblo South, including reigning South Central League MVP Marcus Miera.
And it’s a good year to be loaded. With perennial heavyweights Liberty and Broomfield not as stacked as usual, the general feeling is that a team outside the 4A country club (see also: Greeley Central, Golden and Cheyenne Mountain) could take the honors.
Besides Lewis-Palmer, now in 5A, the last time a team other than Liberty and Broomfield won the 4A title was Dakota Ridge in 1998.
Breaking into that echelon would be quite a feat for the Bulldogs, who have clawed their way to respectability in a town passionate about baseball, football and basketball.
“I would put Pueblo Centennial soccer, 11 years ago, as one of the worst soccer programs in the state of Colorado,” Sterling said. “I actually played locally here, too.”
“They were the doormat,” Sterling added. “They were the team everyone knew they were going to (beat) 10-0.”
Following Tuesday’s 8-0 win over Alamosa, Pueblo Centennial’s fourth shutout of the season, the Bulldogs have won 32 consecutive league games while raising their league record to 80-2-3 over the past six years.
Alamosa was the last team to beat them in league, thanks to a 1-0 victory. The other defeat was five years ago, when the Bulldogs dropped their first game at Dutch Clark Stadium after the newly installed lights malfunctioned and the game against Pueblo South was called at halftime with the Colts up 1-0.
That was the last time the Bulldogs would lose at Dutch Clark, a run that now stands at 52 games, including the playoffs.
“That’s probably the record we like best,” Sterling said.
Speaking of records, the Bulldogs were 17-1 last season and lost in the quarterfinals in overtime to Cheyenne Mountain. In 2005, they became the first soccer program in Pueblo to advance to the semifinals, where they lost to eventual champion Broomfield.
The standard knock against the Bulldogs, who have won six consecutive league titles, has always been that their league is soft and can’t prepare them for the postseason battles the way the C.S. Metro, Northern and Jefferson County leagues do.
The Bulldogs will concede that, but their hope this season is resting on intangibles.
“A lot of the players have been playing together since 10, down to 6 some of them,” senior forward Tony Arveschoug said. “I think that team camaraderie has paid off. We grew up together. We grew up playing soccer in a baseball town.”
That’s the biggest reason the Pueblo South kids transferred in, Sterling said, for one last-ditch shot at high school soccer glory with players who are already teammates on local club teams.
Per state transfer rules, the Bulldogs won’t show off their new look until the midpoint of the season. Sterling has seen the machine, though, and he’s cautiously giddy.
“It is clearly a very good team,” he said. “You still hope it translates to games.”
Arguably the most important piece to the puzzle is the improved play of senior goalie Jordan Tranel. Even with first team all-state defender Karn in front of him, goalkeeping was a position of concern for the Bulldogs in past seasons.
Sterling has no fears anymore, as the physically imposing Tranel has yet to allow a goal this season.
The loss of standout midfielder Jeff Wrona (knee) has been softened by the addition of transfer Tony Garcia. Wrona should be cleared to play by the end of the regular season.
The striking tandem of Arveschoug and Miera has the potential to be lethal. Arveschoug led the Bulldogs in scoring last season and Miera, according to Sterling, is “one of those players that does things you just can’t teach.”
Winning a state title, however, would be one trick the Bulldogs would love to learn.
Bulldogs by the numbers
0 Boys soccer teams in Pueblo besides the Bulldogs that have advanced to the state semifinals.
2 League losses in the past six seasons.
4 Players transferred to the Bulldogs from Pueblo South this season.
32 Consecutive South Central League games the Bulldogs have won.
52 Consecutive games the Bulldogs have won at Dutch Clark Stadium.
