ARVADA >> Holy Family’s boys soccer coach, Ted Hansen, injected a new life into a program that was struggling to breathe last year. Just a few months after his arrival, the Tigers are headed to the Class 3A state championship.

The classification’s top-seeded team secured that trip to the title game during Wednesday night’s semifinal contest at the North Area Athletic Complex, when it let a couple of early goals carry it to a 3-0 victory over No. 5 Roaring Fork. Last year, the Tigers won just three games.

Hansen knew they would be here a month ago.

“The moment I knew that we could maybe get to this point was our win at Frederick,” he recalled. “It was a game that we probably, based on records and stuff, should have won. They really made us work, and we got a 75th-minute winner, 1-0. Just the way that game went and the reaction afterwards, that would be the moment I was like, ‘OK, yeah, these guys are going to work for each other all the way.’”

The Tigers’ defensive line has been choking out opponents all year — giving up just 14 goals through 19 contests — and have kept their foes scoreless throughout the playoffs. Their keeper, senior Joe Sullivan, made the switch from club to high school soccer for his last hurrah at HFHS.

He was a bit bored against the Rams.

“I didn’t have much to do. My defense did their job, so it’s great,” Sullivan said. “It’s just a whole different thing, because there’s more community. You’re with the guys at school and after practice and before practice more, and so it’s just a closer community.”

He’s been boosted by a back line that includes twins Munachi and Dubemchi Tetenta, who each scored a goal in their last two games. That honor fell to Dubemchi against the Rams, when he made his own connection with the nylon in the 23rd minute for Holy Family’s second score.

“It’s amazing,” Dubemchi said of his brotherly connection. “We’ve been obviously playing soccer together for so long, and it’s great to have a friend and a teammate on the soccer pitch that I know so well. Obviously, we know each other’s play style, so every so often we’ll get a one-two pass. And in defense, he always knows when to cover for me.”

Oliver Hansen rose to the occasion in the first few minutes of the game, right after Roaring Fork successfully thwarted a Holy Family corner kick. He took the bobble from the corner of the box, then launched it straight into the back of the net.

Jesus Molina drove in the final nail of Roaring Fork’s season with a penalty kick in the 51st minute. The Tigers’ defense took care of the rest, as it has all season long.

Holy Family, now 15-2-2, will return to the 3A state title game on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

It’ll play either No. 2 Jefferson Academy or No. 3 Peak to Peak, who played in the second semifinal later Wednesday night. The Tigers defeated JA in a 2-1 affair earlier in the year.

“We came in with one of the worst records in the state, and we had three goals: to get a top-four seed, to make playoffs, and to win it,” Dubemchi Tetenta said. “The only thing we have left is to win. I feel confident that we can, and the whole team is ready to work so we can do that.”