DENVER – When times are tough, MSU Denver knows it can rely on the Toe Poke of Justice.
 
"It's one of my signature moves," Bryce Montes said, laughing.
 
Montes scored his third goal of the season – and his second with his preferred shot – to provide the final goal in the Roadrunners' 2-0 Senior Day win Friday over Colorado Christian.
 
"That's fantastic on his senior day, and with his signature toe poke as well," said defender Todd Gibbs, another of MSU Denver's seven seniors.
 
On a day for the seniors, it was freshman Jerry Gutierrez who scored the first goal, just 11:38 into the contest. Gutierrez, who has five goals this season, has scored four of them in two games against Colorado Christian.
 
Then Gutierrez, a candidate for Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year, added his fifth assist in setting up Montes at 22:12.
 
On the finish, he actually tapped it between the legs of Colorado Christian goalkeeper Max Collingwood.
 
"We had been able to get in behind them, so I kept running at them hoping it would come," Montes said. "I saw Jerry and yelled for the ball and knew I had an opportunity.
 
"I saw Yannick (captain Yannick Schad) on the other side and there was a lot of pressure on me, because if I would have missed, he would've had my head."
 
Montes said his teammates came up with the nickname, the "Toe Poke of Justice," for his shot.
 
"Even going back to my club days, I've always used the toe poke," Montes said. "You don't hit it with your laces, you don't hit it with the inside of your foot. Just your big toe. You don't need a windup for it. Just a quick hit. And it just works.
 
"All my college teams and club teams, I've scored like that, and they all say, 'Dude, why? Learn how to shoot the ball.' But does it go in? Yeah, it goes in."
 
MSU Denver (8-7-1 overall, 6-5-1 RMAC) shut things down from there, holding Colorado Christian (1-14, 1-11) to only five shots, with three on goal, for a third straight shutout.
 
"That's more than 300 minutes (317) without a goal," defender Niels Kool said. "That's pretty solid."
 
The three points gave MSU Denver 19 for the season, but they are eighth in the RMAC table. Five teams have at least 24 points, and another has 23 as teams jockey to qualify for the six-team RMAC Tournament.
 
While all but one other team has one game remaining, MSU Denver and Regis each have two left because of a postponement last weekend. MSU Denver will likely need to win at Westminster (10-5-2, 8-3-2) on Sunday and back home against Regis (9-5-1, 8-3) on Tuesday to have a chance to make the field.
 
"We've just got to win every game," Gibbs said. "Every game is a knockout game for us – so we're pretty much in the playoffs already without being in the playoffs. These last two games are going to be extremely tough against good competition."
 
Said MSU Denver coach Hank Lewis: "It's good to get a win. We need it. We could've played better, but we'll take the 'W.'"
 
Lewis credited the seniors for setting the tone for Friday's game.
 
"The message actually came from the seniors," he said. "We had the seniors talk to the guys yesterday about what it is like to be a Roadrunner and what it's like to be at this point in their careers. I told our guys that some of the most important things they were going to hear this season would be coming from the seniors."
 
Said Kool: "Playing on our field as a Roadrunner means a lot to me, and to our team. Getting a win feels really good."
 
For Montes and the seniors, there were plenty of emotions.
 
"The 20 minutes from the end of warmup until the end of the Senior Day celebration, it's all happy and all excitement," Montes said. "It's what you've waited all your years for. But after that it turns off and it's time to do a job. Let's go get a 'W.'"
 
Said Gibbs: "You take every ball at your foot, every minute that you have on the field, you take it with pride. You want every touch to be perfect, because you want to make yourself proud, my dad is here from New Zealand and you want to make him proud, and you want to make the rest of the boys proud as well."
 
Montes, Kool, Gibbs, Vinicius Krusser, Alessandro Gentile and captains Schad and Danny Bautista did, in fact go, home proud.
 
Thanks to the Toe Poke of Justice.