Maybe Mary Beth Miller was getting a little bored. After all, assists had become second nature to the senior attacker, who was 12th in the nation in that category a year ago and currently ranks second on the Terriers all-time assist list.

Or maybe Miller was feeling a little overshadowed. Playing in the footsteps first of Alyssa Trudel, the Terriers’ second-leading all-time scorer, and now Jenny Hauser, the team’s next great hope, Miller was always seemingly an afterthought on one of the nation’s most dangerous offenses.

Not anymore. Miller exploded for a career-high five goals and eight points in Saturday’s 16-5 win over Stony Brook University, taking the reins of the Terrier attack and establishing herself as every bit the goal-scoring threat as some of her more-heralded teammates.

“We’ve really tried to play to our strengths a little bit more,” said BU coach Liza Kelly. “Last year Mary really stuck behind the crease a lot and was a great feeder. I think now Mary has really worked hard to get in better shape and to get faster, and so I think she’s a threat from up top as well.”

And no one knows that better than Stony Brook. Just about halfway into the first frame Saturday, Miller began to heat up, putting home a shot from the right corner to pad the already robust BU lead to 6-1. But it was only after assisting on a Lauren Morton goal a minute and a half later that Miller truly caught fire.

The run started when Miller took a pass from Hauser right in front of the net and put it home through a crowd to give the Terriers an eight-goal margin. Fifty seconds later, Martin took a dish from Keely Anderson, cutting through the middle of the Stony Brook defense, and snapped it into the net, following that goal up with yet another score two minutes later for her fourth of the game.

Miller then assisted on a Hauser goal and a Danica Strutt score in the opening minutes of the second half, before tacking on one more goal of her own with 22 minutes left in the game. And she probably could have added more, but with the Terriers already nursing a comfortable 12-goal lead, Miller spent the final 17 and a half minutes watching from the sideline.

But even with all that time to reflect on her five-goal performance, Miller was much more interested in the Terriers’ first league win of the season.

“I didn’t even know it was five,” Miller said. “My shots were just going in. It’s obviously a whole team effort and everyone on the attack is really moving the ball well, seeing each other, so that has a lot to do with it.”

And with the performance, Miller has truly stepped out of the shadows. Already quietly one of the Terriers’ most prolific point scorers for some time, Miller now stands alone in fourth place, just behind current teammate Lindsay Lewis. In the past two games alone, Miller has recorded eight goals, one quarter of the total she scored all last season.

Not that her proclivity for assists has decreased. Miller has tacked on six of those in the wins over Stony Brook and Yale University, and now leads the team with 14 on the year. With the season almost a third of the way in the books, Miller is well on her way to passing her own mark of 32 helpers set last year and has Trudel’s all-time team record of 42 — and career mark of 95 — on her radar.

“I think the great thing about Mary,” Kelly said, “is that she is smart enough and has a good enough stick that if the shot isn’t there for her, she can dish it off.”