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For four Minnesota Morris men's soccer seniors, this weekend's trip to the Rocky Mountain State, means a little more than your usual early September non-conference games.

Morris continues the season's first week by playing Kean (Sept.4/1:00 p.m.) and Colorado College (Sept. 5/2:30 p.m.) in Colorado Springs, and for Greg Borchers, Toby Glaser, Matt Johnson and Tyler Weber the weekend is also a trip home.

All four hail from Colorado, and will be playing their first games as college athletes in their home state.

It's kind of unreal.” Borchers said. “I don't know, soccer up here has taken me to a lot of great places. But going home has always had something special attached to it. My parents always come up and watch me play up here, but going home and playing in front of your friends and your family, guys you played against basically your whole life in club, and playing against them in college is something special, that you don't normally get to do.”

Glaser is a Colorado Springs native, and Johnson is from nearby Monument, meaning they'll be heading right back to where they grew up, playing just minutes away from home.

“It's going to be sweet, it's going to be really cool, to actually have fans that I know back to home, that get to come see the games,” Glaser said. “Yeah it is right at home. It'll be about 15 minutes from my house.”

Johnson echoed his statements, “It will be nice, usually I just play soccer there back in the summer, but to get to play a college game, 10 minutes from my hometown will be pretty special. I think it'll be a lot of fun.”

Borchers grew up in Westminster, with Weber from Erie, leaving the families of all four within 100 miles of the games. Weber says his family usually only makes it to Morris once a year so there is plenty of excitement that the Cougars are heading west. Plenty of family and friends are expected to be behind UMM when Sunday and Monday come.

The four all came in together as freshmen back in the fall of 2008, and have developed into the core of a team that is pursuing its second UMAC title in the last three years, and its fifth straight trip to the UMAC Championship game.

That fall was not the first time they crossed paths, though, with the players having previous history from the high school and club ranks. Johnson and Glaser have known each other since first grade and played in high school and club together. Likewise, Borchers and Weber went to high school together for three years, and had some memorable battles with their future teammates.

“Yeah I used to hate Matt, I really did,” Borchers said tongue in cheek. “When we used to play against each other, Matt would always be forward and I would always be center back. And every game that I played against him I conceded a (penalty kick) because he dove. I had four games against him and four PK's conceded, and we tied every single one of them.”

Then getting to college and having an immediate connection with your new teammates made an unfamiliar setting that much easier.

“It was awesome,” Weber said. “It was good. We all stuck together, and were living together, so it was a good thing.”

Once campus, the group quickly showed the strength of their Colorado roots. “When you go west, the whole Pacific Northwest, and California, and Colorado, all of those states have pretty committed faculty and clubs,” Weber noted. “I played in Westminster and it was a great experience for me, I loved playing club in Colorado, it's pretty serious.”

Johnson and Glaser started in the first game of their freshman year. Johnson finished with three points, scoring with an assist from his grade school friend. Borchers came off the bench to also add a goal, using an assist from Johnson to aid in the Cougars 5-1 win. Weber would also start seven games in net that season, finishing a perfect 7-0-0 with four shutouts in his rookie campaign.

That season ended with all four players in the starting line-up, as Morris beat rival St. Scholastica 1-0 for the UMAC Tournament Championship.

 A year later, and another championship as the Cougars won the UMAC regular season title. Weber had a career year, charting six shutouts and a miniscule 0.36 goals against average. Borchers started all 21 games, while Johnson started 20.

Now with their final season underway, only one goal is left unchecked, to play in the NCAA tournament. “It'd mean a lot,” Johnson said. “We came in together four years ago and that was our goal…to make the NCAA tournament. And to do it with these guys, my best friends up here, we all live together, we're always watching soccer, talking soccer. So to do it with the guys from Colorado, the guys on the team this year would be special.”

“It would mean everything,” Borchers added. “That's the goal, and right now I'm not imagining what would happen if we didn't do it. So we better do it, basically because I've worked hard for four years with these guys, and I've known my goalkeeper since eighth grade. We've had success before and I want to have success again. More than just winning a conference championship, but going to nationals and doing something well while there.”

“Playing in all those final games every year,” Glaser said. “There is kind of a void losing last year and just not making it to the national tournament. So it's definitely something we've worked towards, and I don't think myself and the other seniors have wanted it more than this year.”