DENVER – What do you give a coach for her birthday?
 
Winning is always a nice place to start.
 
"That was our present to her," MSU Denver midfielder Miriam Caballero said. "We said, 'we're going to win on her birthday.' She deserves it."
 
Caballero scored the game-winning goal at 61:06 to break 1-1 tie and Katy Coats scored just 17 seconds later to give the Roadrunners and coach Kat Mertz some breathing room Sunday in a 3-1 victory over Eastern New Mexico.
 
"We love Kat," Coats said of MSU Denver's first-year coach. "And she's been great. Being her birthday, we definitely wanted to win for her."
 
MSU Denver improved to 3-0-2, completing the non-conference portion of the season unbeaten while extending its best start to a season since 2013.
 
"I wanted them to win for themselves," Mertz said. "But it's nice to go home and be happy about the result."
 
The Roadrunners dominated the game, finishing with advantages of 22-5 in shots, 11-3 in shots on goal, and 12-0 in corner kicks.
 
And yet the lead was only 1-0 at halftime following Elli Zimmer's goal off a Gabriella Gamboa corner kick. And then Eastern New Mexico tied it just 2:38 after the break after a scramble in front of the net.
 
"We talked about it at halftime, that it was the type of game where it only takes one shot for them to get back into it, and that's what happened," Mertz said. "But what I'm most proud of is the response from our players. We could've gotten frustrated, could've gotten snippy at each other, could've gotten negative with each other. But we stayed disciplined and stuck to the game plan."
 
Said Caballero: "There's always going to be adversity that you're going to have to figure out as a team. But for the most part the mentality was, 'We're not going to give up.' We were determined to get something in the back of the net."
 
In particular, Caballero was determined to put one in the back of the net. She scored on a virtuoso effort, controlling the ball in the midfield and then firing away from the top of the box for her first career goal.
 
"That was awesome," Mertz said. "That was an unbelievable goal. I was joking that it looked like she got frustrated and said, 'I'm going to go do it myself.'"
 
Said Cabellero: "I found a corner and I just hit it."
 
Seventeen seconds later, Coats scored her second goal of the weekend and third of the season after getting clear at about 25 yards out and firing.
 
"I kind of blacked out," Coats said of her goal. "I don't really remember it. Somebody asked me where I shot it from, and I don't know."
 
You have to go back to the program's glory years to find the school record for fastest time for consecutive goals – Amy Leichliter and Carolyn Nelson scored 12 seconds apart during a 2003 game.
 
"It was crazy," Caballero said. "I feel like that rarely happens. It definitely gave us more motivation, and then it became more about the management of the game."
 
At 3-0-2, MSU Denver is now hoping to put together a quality run through the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The Roadrunners were picked to finish eighth.
 
"I'm so happy," Coats said. "And not even just on the field, but off the field too our team is just doing well together. It's been a team environment that is really great. We're fighting for each other and for winning together."
 
Said Caballero: It feels really good right now. We're looking forward to conference play. Since the start of the season in general, we've seen a transformation. It's the same players from the past couple of years. We're all in the same mental space. We're going to win. We want to win."
 
The Roadrunners know it won't be easy. First up is a Thursday game at Westminster, picked to finish fourth in the league, and the road trip continues with a Sept. 26 game at Colorado Christian.
 
"I think we've learned a lot and grown as a team," Mertz said. "We've been able to establish our coaching philosophy in the sense of where we want to play and how we want to play. And they've done a really good job of working hard towards that.
 
"The RMAC is a great conference. Top to bottom, there isn't going to be an easy win. We have to be able to take what we've learned and move on. We can't be excited about what we've done, because that's in the past. But did set out with a goal of being undefeated in non-conference, and we've done that. We've got a goal of being undefeated at home, and so we've got two things in our back pocket going into conference."