DENVER – They call themselves the "Warm-Up Squad," but they were beyond warm on Thursday.
 
Try red-hot.
 
Elisa Dean scored two goals, Katy Coats had a goal and an assist, and Annie Rolf had two assists as MSU Denver opened the season with a 3-0 victory over Texas A&M-Commerce at the Assembly Athletic Complex.
 
"We're the Warm-Up Squad," Dean said. "We've been warming up together since last spring. It's a thing."
 
Coats got the early organized activity started with a blast from 25 yards out just 9:47 into the game. A nifty pass in traffic helped set up Coats, who turned and fired from just outside the penalty box to the upper left corner of the net.
 
"I feel like something that surprises keepers is to take shots that they aren't ready for," Coats said. "I got away from the girl and I was open, so I took the shot and it went in."
 
Then Dean moved center stage.
 
Kate Giordano passed the ball up the right sideline to Rolf, who feed the speedy Dean in open space. All that was left in front of her was charging goalkeeper Jen Peters. Dean worked her way around her before depositing a shot into an open net at 18:36.
 
"I saw her coming out, and so I was able to take that touch around her and place it in the goal," Dean said. "When she made the decision to come out, I don't think she really took into account that I'm fast."
 
Dean hit the post on a shot just seconds into the second half, but wound up scoring at 47:53 anyway after a shot by Coats ricocheted to her.
 
With her two goals, Dean doubled her career goal total in her 37^th game as a Roadrunner.
 
"She put in a lot of work over the summer," first-year MSU Denver coach Kat Mertz said. "She was out here every day on the field working hard. We were able to do individual sessions because of the rules with COVID, and I knew she had a burning desire.
 
"She's mature and she's figured out what her strengths are, and she really plays to that. The next level for her development was her finishing."
 
One of Dean's strengths has always stood out. Her speed.
 
"I run," Dean said. "That's what I do."
 
The win was a first for Mertz at MSU Denver, but not the first of her career – the former head coach at UNLV, Saint Louis and Oregon has done this before, but still savored it.
 
"The first one is always the hardest," Mertz said. "We got good energy from the players, and now the challenge is to keep that energy."
 
It was the first win for the Roadrunners' true freshman goalie, too, as Kayla Caballero made three saves – a couple of them terrific second-half stops – in her collegiate debut.
 
"The first 10 minutes I was thinking, 'Oh, shoot, don't come near me,'" Caballero said. "But as the game went on, I got into a groove and it felt more natural and I was more confident in my play.
 
"Seeing Katy's goal, I just thought, 'Thank goodness.' It was early and it helped me feel more at ease and settle into the game."
 
Coats, a high-scoring junior college transfer, was held to just one goal in that strange, eight-game spring season. And she was thrilled to get the traditional soccer season off to a strong start. She is putting the spring in the past.
 
"This was my first game at MSU Denver, because the spring wasn't a real season," Coats said. "So it was really exciting to come out, score the first goal and win our first game and really work well together as a team."
 
That teamwork included the Warm-Up Squad limbering up and breaking out.

After scoring five goals in eight games in the spring, Rolf will be the center of attention for opposing teams. Rolf's assists were the first two of her nine-game MSU Denver career.
 
"A lot of it is knowing what you're doing on the ball and off the ball," Mertz said. "When Annie has the ball on the outside of her foot, what kind of run is Elisa making and what kind of run is Katy Coats making?"
 
Said Coats: "The three of us, we really do work well together in practice. We're really good at interchanging and working together, working off each other. And I think that relationship will just continue to grow."