Jeremy Ebobisse scored early for the Earthquakes and Brendan Hines-Ike later tallied the equalizer for Austin as the two clubs played to a 1-1 tie on Saturday night at San Jose.
It marked the sixth time in nine all-time meetings that San Jose and Austin played to a tie. The Earthquakes have won two of the other three meetings.
Austin (6-4-5, 23 points) is 4-1-2 over its past seven MLS matches.
San Jose (3-10-2, 11 points) continues to endure a tough campaign as it outshot Austin 23-6 but couldn’t land a second goal. The Earthquakes put eight shots on target to Austin’s two.
Brad Stuver had six saves for Austin. William Yarbrough had one save for the Quake.
San Jose came up empty in a wild sequence in the first minute of second-half stoppage time.
A loose ball unexpectedly came toward the Earthquakes’ Cristian Espinoza and the ball bounced off his foot, hit the goal post and bounced toward the center of the box.
Hernan Lopez was charging toward the ball and delivered a right-footed rocket that smacked the center of the crossbar and bounced back into the field of play. Niko Tsakiris got the rebound but his shot was way wide to the left.
The Earthquakes struck in the 10th minute with Espinoza setting up the goal with his ninth assist of the season.
Espinoza was on the right and delivered a pass through traffic to Ebobisse on the doorstep of the net. Ebobisse slammed the ball into the net with his left foot for his fourth goal of the season.
Austin knotted the score in the 45th minute on a free kick from just outside the box to the right of the net.
Owen Wolff sent the ball in toward the front of the net and Hines-Ike headed the ball and it caromed off San Jose’s Jackson Yueill before landing in the net. It was Hines-Ike’s first goal of the season.
–Field Level Media
