“I’m just glad we came out and played crisp,” Baum said. “Sometimes we come into these midweek games and we are a little flat. But today we came out and we were moving the ball and playing some good defense. I thought we played this game with the proper mental attitude.”

The six-goal victory marks the biggest win for MSU since 2004 when the Spartans put up seven goals against Valparaiso.

The Spartans’ (3-4-0) first goal came when senior midfielder Zac Scaffidi received a long pass down the right side of the field. He took the ball in as deep as he could before playing a low driven cross into the 18-yard box. Senior Doug DeMartin tried to play a back-heel on the ball, but he missed and the ball went behind him to sophomore midfielder Jeff Ricondo. Ricondo made no mistake in burying the ball into the net.

Less than two minutes later, the Spartans struck again. This time it came from an unlikely candidate — sophomore defender Colin Givens. Givens received a drop pass from sophomore midfielder Spencer Thompson and dribbled parallel to the 18-yard line. When a shooting line opened up, he decided to fire a shot that beat Western Michigan’s goalkeeper to his right.

“You don’t see that very often,” Baum said when discussing the rarity of a defenseman scoring. “But he’s pretty talented guy offensively. I give him credit, he had one shot and he kept it on goal and put it in the corner.”

The Broncos (1-7-1) defense continued to be busy for the rest of the first half.

Only minutes after the Spartans’ second goal, DeMartin received a pass inside the 18-yard box and fired a shot after making a quick turn. The ball hit the Broncos’ sprawling defender square in the chest and completely knocked the wind out of him.

On the ensuing corner, senior midfielder Ben Pirmann played a ball to the far post and found senior forward Louis Stephens III wide open. But Stephens made a bad touch and sent the ball over the net.

With 11 minutes remaining in the first half, sophomore goalkeeper Avery Steinlage intercepted a through ball and quickly sent it upfield to set up the counterattack. DeMartin and freshman forward Domenic Barone played a quick give-and-go, which opened up a passing lane to dish the ball off to a streaking Thompson. Thompson received the ball 10 yards away from the net and played a finesse shot with his left foot that just missed the far post.

The Spartans’ third goal came from a counterattack set up by freshman midfielder Cyrus Saydee. Even the Broncos fans looked at each other in amazement after Saydee played a perfect chip over the Western defensive line and found DeMartin perfectly in stride. The ball quickly went from DeMartin’s foot to Thompson, who was left open on the right side and made a quick touch to get it over the goaltender.

At halftime, the Spartans had four shots on goal and capitalized on three of them — while holding the Broncos to one shot on net.

Finding the back of the net was a focus for the Spartans, after only scoring one goal in the last two games.

“Getting out to an early lead puts everybody in a more relaxed mode,” Baum said. “I think it calmed us down and helped us play more a fluid style.”

The Spartans came out after the break with the same intensity level present in the first half. Three minutes in, DeMartin had a shot from just inside the 18 that barely went over the net.

DeMartin finally found the goal in the 49th minute after Stephens brought the ball down the right side of the field and played a pass across the 6-yard box and found DeMartin wide open at the back post.

With the Spartans controlling every facet of the game and holding onto a 4-0 lead with 21 minutes left, Baum took out all 11 starters and gave his bench players an opportunity to show what they can do.

“Getting that lead gave us some rest,” Thompson said. “We played in 90-degree heat at Ohio State and it’s pretty hot out here today, too. Then we have the game at Penn State on Sunday. So it was good to get a break and to give the young guys as much experience as we can.”

MSU’s reserves kept up level of play and were able to record two goals. Freshmen Rubin Bega and Cyrus Saydee both recorded their first collegiate goals in the latter portions of the match.

The Spartans outshot the Broncos 21-4 and will look to build off the big win when they play at Penn State at 2 p.m. Sunday.

“It was great to get back on the winning track,” Saydee said. “It was a big boost and we need to build off this.

“If we can get that next win, the sky’s the limit for us.”