COMMERCE CITY – A handful of goals and some help from a rival earned Colorado Rapids a bit of rest.

The Rapids 5-2 win over Los Angeles FC in front of a crowd of 16,292 Sunday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, coupled with Rocky Mountain Cup rival Real Salt Lake’s 1-0 win over Sporting Kansas City and Vancouver’s 1-1 draw against Seattle, sent Colorado to the top of the Western Conference standings on the final day of the regular season.

“It took a lot of work to get to this point, and actually put all the pieces together during a 34-game season, but we’re super happy,” Rapids midfielder Cole Bassett said. “You can see it in the locker room, but we also know we can enjoy it this week, but then we’ve got to get back to it. We know the job’s not done.”

The Rapids finished the regular season with 61 points, one more than Seattle and three clear of Kansas City to finish atop the conference for the first time in club history. Colorado’s player and coaches waited on the field as the two other matches concluded before the celebration started in earnest with coach Robin Fraser on receiving end of a celebratory shower of water or sports drink.

“I don’t remember who told me,” Fraser said. “It was more like the crowd, the players, everyone started to erupt. At that point, I figured something good was happening.”

With the top seed comes a bye in the first round of the playoffs and a berth in next year’s CONCACAF Champions League.

After the visitors failed to score on a few corners and set pieces in the first 15 minutes, the Rapids took their first real scoring chance and ran with it. Rapids defender Danny Wilson played a long ball to Kellyn Acosta down the left flank. Acosta settled the ball with his chest and played a pass right onto the boot of Jonathan Lewis, who beat LAFC goalkeeper Jamal Blackman with his first touch in the 18th minute.

Trailing by a goal and needing a win to have a chance to make the playoffs, LAFC coach Bob Bradley replaced defender Sebastien Ibeagha with star forward Carlos Vela in the 30th minute, a move that quickly backfired. Lewis nearly scored his second a minute after the substitution when his shot was deflected off the near post and out for a corner kick. Collen Warner, a Denver native who graduated from Denver East, scored his first goal since 2017 off the corner kick in the 33rd minute. Blackman punched Jack Price’s service right to Warner, who hit a low shot through a crowd and into goal.

“Collen has played extremely well all year,” Fraser said. “I’m so happy from him that he gets goal. He took it really well. It was very timely, very important for us.”

LAFC owned a 9-7 advantage in shots at half time, but Colorado keeper William Yarbrough was only needed to make one save, which came off a set piece in the minutes prior to Colorado’s opening goal.

The visitors finished with 20 shots to Colorado’s 18, but the Rapids put nine of their attempts on target to LAFC’s four.

Lewis scored his second goal in the 53rd minute, two minutes before Cristian Arango scored LAFC’s first.

Cole Bassett fired a right-footed shot past Blackman to make it 4-1 in the 63rd minute only for Brian Rodriguez to get the goal back eight minutes later.

Dominique Badji capped the scoring with a first-touch finish from close range in the 79th minute.

The Rapids will host the winner of a first-round matchup between Minnesota United and Portland Timbers.

“I think we have a big advantage here at home, so we got to take advantage of it now,” Bassett said. “We earned it throughout the season, and whoever we play, whoever comes here, we’ve got to go out and try to do what we’ve done all year long.”