DENVER – The MSU Denver men's soccer team couldn't wait to erase the memories of Thursday's slow start to the season and turned in one of the program's most dominant games in the past two decades on Sunday in a 9-0 victory over St. Cloud State.
 
"We were out of character on Thursday (in a 3-1 loss at Fort Hays State)," said forward Aaron Biggerstaff, who will officially receive credit for two goals. "We didn't start the game well. We got a really good reset at practice. We watched some of the film, talked through some of the mistakes we made, refocused on some of the things we want to be good at, and we came out today and had an opportunity to prove that the scoreline from Thursday doesn't translate to today, that it was a new game and a new opportunity to prove ourselves.
 
"I thought we did a really good job of responding to how we played."
 
It took just 53 seconds for the Roadrunners to score, as Daniel Williams punched in an Eduardo Gentile corner kick, deflecting it off a defender. The opening goal was originally credited to Biggerstaff, but Biggerstaff did score the next two goals – at 8:23 and 12:05 – converting first on a Jonas Votaw throw-in and then scoring on a penalty kick.
 
Then Biggerstaff set up Kevin Jones in open space with a nifty pass, and Jones finished to a 4-0 lead at 20:57. And Tanner Stevenson scored at 31:24 on an assist by Aidan Bates, making it 5-0.
 
"What was positive was our start," MSU Denver coach Nick Kirchhof said. "We were assertive right from the get-go. We knew we were hungry. We wanted to jump all over them quick.
 
"St. Cloud had a great battle against Colorado Christian (a 0-0 tie on Friday). I'm glad we were able to impose our style of play and our fitness and finesse. And then we kept attacking in waves. I'm glad the that the boys came out and competed. We lacked that at that start against Fort Hays."
 
The five-goal first half was the most for the Roadrunners since they scored six in the second half of a 7-0 win over Colorado Christian on Oct. 25, 2018, and was the most in a first half of a game since scoring seven in an 11-0 win over Colorado Christian on Oct. 4, 2005. The nine goals overall was also the most since that Oct. 4, 2005 contest.
 
"The biggest thing was to start off with that fire in us, guns blazing," Jones said. "That was very important coming out. I think we really needed it. Creating opportunities was the biggest thing."
 
Jones set up the sixth goal, which came at 52:41, lofting a cross into the box that Adan Perez redirected with a header to the upper right corner. His shot went over the goalkeeper, then off the crossbar, before deflecting back in off the keeper.
 
Cyrus Gulati scored on a penalty kick at 66:12, Nicco Schiappa converted on a low bicycle kick on an assist from Kade Thornton at 77:29, and Bates capped the scoring at 79:17 with assists from Stevenson and Luke Bone.

The Roadrunners took 21 shots, putting 16 on goal.
 
"When you run and exert yourself more, you naturally find the ball more," Kirchhof said. "We played some of the best soccer we have since I've been here with some of the least amount of coaching."

Goalkeepers Ross Miller and Shawn Mantey each had two saves in a combined shutout.
 
"We showed we can do it," Biggerstaff said. "We've had performances where we've played 60 minutes, two-thirds of the game, maybe a half, and played really well, and the rest of the game we slacked off. Today we showed that we can do it, play every single minute of the game as hard as we can. We showed we can play a complete game.
 
"We've done it once. Now can we do it every single time we play?"