Julian Hall sparked a three-goal first half by scoring in the 15th minute as the New York Red Bulls ended a four-game home winless stretch with a 4-1 victory over San Diego FC Saturday night in Harrison, N.J.
Hall scored for the second time in three matches, notching his 11th goal as the Red Bulls (10-12-6, 36 points) improved to 5-6-3 at home and 4-7-2 in their past 13 matches.
Devin Padelford scored his first goal for New York in the 20th minute, and Jorge Ruvalcaba scored his first goal since May 23 in the 27th minute after setting up Hall’s opening tally.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting added a late goal in second-half stoppage time while Ronald Donkor collected two assists for the Red Bulls, who scored four goals for the third time this season, last doing so on April 22.
New York goalie Ethan Horvath made three saves and highlighted the win with a diving stop on Anders Dreyer’s penalty kick in the 44th.
Cedric Bakambu scored in the 60th minute as San Diego (8-12-8, 32 points) fell to 0-4-2 in its past six matches since its 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Galaxy on Aug. 29.
San Diego goalie CJ dos Santos allowed four goals on 12 shots on goal, making eight saves. New York had a 26-13 edge in total shots despite maintaining possession for 43.1% of the contest.
Hall opened the scoring by easily getting past defender Ian Murphy at the right edge of the net and waiting for a feed from Ruvalcaba. After Ruvalcaba’s pass through the box went untouched, Hall quickly stuck his left foot out for a simple tap-in.
The Red Bulls took 2-0 lead when Padelford navigated through traffic in the center of the box and headed home a corner kick from Cade Cowell.
New York extended its lead to 3-0 when Ruvalcaba was able to stay in bounds near the end-line, avoided losing the ball to San Diego’s Kieran Sargeant and scored from a sharp angle off a pass from Donkor.
–Field Level Media
