DENVER – Leading 2-0 at halftime against a struggling team, it would have been easy – but not wise – for the MSU Denver women's soccer team to relax.
 
It didn't.
 
"(Coach) Kat (Mertz) talked to us at halftime about how 2-0 is a dangerous lead," senior Kailey Maness said. "Because you can't go on your heels and get confident. We wanted to get more goals."
 
Seventeen seconds into the second half it was 3-0, and three goals later the Roadrunners were all smiles following a 6-0 victory over New Mexico Highlands.
 
"Towards the end of the first half we lacked urgency," Mertz said. "We talked about 2-0 being a dangerous lead, and how we needed to really get after them, and I thought we did that."
 
Maness had a goal and career highs of three assists and five points, Tessa Killmon had her first career two-goal game, Brooklyn Gold had two assists, and freshmen Monica Yoder, Maya Woods and Kailani Nuhn all scored goals as the Roadrunners improved to 5-4-4 overall, including 4-2-1 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, while posting their 26^th shutout in 51 games with Mertz as head coach.
 
That quick score to start the second half looked like it was a play taken out of a textbook. While that wasn't the case, there was some pre-planning among Maness, Isa Durkin and Yoder.
 
"Monica and Isa looked at me, and Isa said, 'I'm going here, Monica is going there, you go the farthest,'" Maness said. "Brooklyn served it and Monica ended up getting on the end of it. It worked out well."
 
Durkin got an assist after sending a pass to Maness, who lofted one of her patented crosses from the right corner for Yoder to finish.
 
"That's the power of communication," Mertz said. "That's one of the things we've been harping on with our team a lot – communicating where you want the ball, communicating defensively, helping each other out. That kind of communication unlocks the defense.
 
"I know what you're thinking, and I know what you're thinking, and then, 'Boom.' I mean, that was a beautiful goal."
 
Yoder's goal was her fourth of the season, matching the most by an MSU Denver freshman since Reigna Banks scored six in 2015.
 
Woods' goal made it 5-0 at 74:20, while Nuhn's was the final score, at 89:10.
 
Woods made a run to take a pass from another freshman, Jenelle Arenibas, and hammered a left-footed shot through the goalkeeper's legs.
 
"I saw Janelle coming in and I saw the outside back commit to her," Woods said. "We'd practiced that, and I was calling for it and she saw me. It was fun to execute what we've practiced."
 
Nuhn's goal came as she played in her first career game. She banged in the rebound of a Taryn O'Brien shot that was blocked.
 
"It was definitely exciting, because I didn't know if I was going to go in or not," Nuhn said. "I knew that I had to capitalize if I did go in.
 
"It was bouncing around in the box and I was holding out – I kind of like to do that. I saw a clear shot and so I just took it."
 
Among other freshmen, defender Ella Castle also made her MSU Denver debut, and starter Madrid Mack also had yet another strong game.
 
"We knew this freshman class was going to have a big impact for us," Mertz said. "Over time we think it's going to be a really big class for us. That was exciting.
 
"I'm happy for Kai, she's had a tough week personally – and it was nice for her to be able to put some of that aside and come out and play."
 
Said Maness: "I'm excited for the freshmen, seeing their confidence grow. And they've earned it. They deserve those goals. It was great to have a team win."
 
Maness and the veterans did a lot of the heavy lifting early on. Maness scored her seventh career goal, but first since 2021, on a header on Gold's corner kick at 16:57.
 
"I've been on the goalkeeper on our corner-kick plays for the most part, and Brooklyn served it perfectly to the front post," Maness said. "I was the only one there, and I kind of just got in front of the goalie and it went right to me. Honestly, I closed my eyes and the next thing I knew it was in the goal."
 
Maness then had assists on each of the next three scores. The three-assist game, one short of the program-record four that has been accomplished twice – most recently by National Player of the Year Ymara Guante in 2004 – is only the 13^th game of three or more assists in program history. The last three-assist game by a Roadrunner was on Oct. 23, 2009, by Madison McQuilliams at Nebraska-Kearney.
 
MSU Denver took a 2-0 lead at 19:28 as Maness passed to Gold in the middle of the field, and Gold sent a lead pass to a racing Killmon, who deposited a show in the lower left corner.
 
"They were playing on offside trap, so I was trying to stay onside," Killmon said. "Brooklyn played a great ball in to me, and I ran onto it. I just tried to stay composed, looked up and saw which slot was open, and just hammered it home."
 
After Yoder's early second-half goal made it 3-0, Maness intercepted a short goal kick and knocked it to Killmon, whose score at 60:02 made it 4-0.
 
"Scoring is one of those feelings that, no matter how many times you do it, it always feels great," Killmon said. "It was nice to get a couple of goals under my belt."
 
Killmon had a chance to record the program's 38^th hat trick – but first since Karisa Price in 2014 – but fired just high on a shot from about 18 yards out.
 
"I had a good touch on it," Killmon said. "Just a little high."
 
The Roadrunners' six goals matched the program's most since an 8-0 win at New Mexico Highlands on Sept. 20, 2019. It's the third time they've had a 6-0 victory in three seasons under Mertz.
 
"It's good for the whole team," Killmon said. "It shows that, although we're a young team, we have so much potential. This is just a fraction of what we can do in the future. It was good to see some new faces on the field."
 
The immediate future is a Sunday game at noon against No. 18 Colorado School of Mines, a preseason national championship contender that is just above MSU Denver in the RMAC standings at 8-2-3 overall and 4-1-2 in league play.
 
"It's always a fun game," Mertz said. "They're good, good at what they do. For us, it was great to be able to rest players tonight and have some positive energy. We could have walked away frustrated, but we didn't. Hopefully we'll get some rest and then get that mindset, with some confidence, going into Sunday."