Houston Dynamo vs San Jose Earthquakes Final Score: Houston stay unbeaten at home

Houston hosted San Jose on Saturday night. The game was the first time that the Dynamo faced the Dom Kinnear-less Earthquakes. Houston were looking to keep their unbeaten record at home and move into first place in the Western Conference.

The Dynamo’s up front trio of Romell Quioto, Erik Torres and Alberth Elis were back starting this game. Last week head coach Wilmer Cabrera opted to leave them on the bench for the team’s away game against Real Salt Lake. The Dynamo were forced to play without Alex who was serving a red card suspension after being ejected from last week’s game.

Quioto had several opportunities in front of the net in the first twenty minutes of the game. Unfortunately, his first shot went sky high over the net. His second big opportunity came around the twentieth minute when Tarbell got his fingers of the shot to push it just over the net. That shot led to a corner kick for the Dynamo which Boniek Garcia served into the box. Elis pushed forward getting a head on the ball redirecting it to the net past Tarbell to give Houston a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute.

Erick Torres was take down in the box as the second half got underway and the Dynamo were awarded a penalty. Andres Imperiale was initially given a red card for taking down Torres but after conferring with the assistant referee Ricardo Salazar changed it to a yellow card. Torres took the PK for the Dynamo but was denied by Tarbell who guess correctly as he made a diving save to stop the ball from crossing the goal line.

As the second half drug on it looked as thought the Earthquakes were beginning to gain ground on the Dynamo. The Quakes had several opportunities to tie the game but were unable to put any of them past Tyler Deric.

Vicente Sanchez doubled the lead for the Dynamo in the 86th minute as his scored his first goal in orange. Elis crossed the ball into him at the 6-yard box and Sanchez poked the ball in to make it 2-0.

Then as time ran out on the clock Tarbell came out to kick the ball back down the field but he wasn’t able to get a good foot on the ball as he slid to the ground. Sanchez came running in, jumping over Tarbell, to get to the ball. As the ball got ready to go out of bounds Sanchez got a foot on the ball keeping it in play and towards goal. It rolled along the goal line and Mauro Manotas slid in making sure that the ball crossed the goal line to give Houston a 3-0 victory.

With the win Houston stay unbeaten at home this season. The three points gives Houston 37 points on the season and (with tie-breakers) puts them at the top of the Western Conference.

Next Saturday the Dynamo face the Vancouver Whitecaps on the road.

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