LAKEWOOD, Colo. – It took nearly 105 minutes, but it was worth the wait.

Annie Rolf's goal off a corner kick by Katy Coats at the near post gave MSU Denver a 2-1 victory Sunday over Colorado Christian.

"We implemented corner kick plays this week and that's sort of how it was supposed to look," MSU Denver interim coach Bonnie Young said, laughing. "It was a good goal. Everyone was sort of where they were supposed to be." 

Rolf, an all-region second team player during the 2019 season after scoring seven goals for West Florida, got her first goal of the season.

"She does have the reputation of being a goal scorer," Young said. "Hopefully we can get her some goals in the run of play, but that was a good start." 

After waiting 457 days between victories thanks to COVID-19 pushing the season back to the spring, the extra 15 minutes of overtime we're just fine.

"They are aware of when the last time we played and won is, so it's an important win," Young said. "It's been a long time. We've got some improvement to make, but we're going to keep going from here."

Colorado Christian started off strong as, just 15 minutes in, freshman Taya Starnes put in the first goal.

"We started out very slow at first," Young said. "They hit a long shot that went in, and it kind of snapped us out of it and our intensity rate went up. You don't want to have to have a goal scored against you to wake you up, but we raised our level after that." 

Just over a minute later, junior midfielder Luna Garcia changed the course of the game with a crucial goal. By keeping the ball on a string, Garcia created an excellent shot just outside the goalie box to tie the game.

"It was an amazing goal," Young said. "She beat a couple of people at the top of the 18 and then she slotted it in. It was Luna taking charge and beating people." 

It was Garcia's fourth career goal.

"She's a workhorse, a playmaker who also gets the job done defensively," Young said. "She's incredibly creative on the ball and she can do some great things. She's hard to stop no matter how good of a defender you are. She doesn't always look for the goal, but she'll set them up, so it was nice to see her look for the goal." 

MSU Denver continued to carry play, accumulating a 17-7 advantage in shots and a 12-3 margin in shots on goal.

Ashleigh Maguire, CCU's senior goalie, was forced to stay active the whole game, making eight saves.

MSU Denver's offense was balanced, with five players attempting at least two shots and Rolf, Elisa Dean and Katy Harris all putting two shots on goal.

Still, it required overtime to win it.

"It's a nice win," Young said. "We had some ups and downs in momentum."