Jack Skahan registered his first career brace and the San Jose Earthquakes continued their franchise-best start with a 3-1 victory over Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night at Kansas City, Kan.
Dave Romney also scored a goal for San Jose (6-1-0, 18 points), which has outscored its opponents 13-2 this season.
Daniel made three saves for the Earthquakes, who began play in 1974 in the North American Soccer League. San Jose also defeated Sporting KC for the second time this season.
Jack Bartlett scored for Sporting KC (1-5-1, 4 points), who lost their third consecutive match and are last in the Western Conference.
Sporting KC, who is 0-3-1 at home, has been outscored 17-7 this season.
San Jose took the lead on Skahan’s second goal, coming early in the second half.
The Quakes cleared the ball out of their own zone and then Niko Tsakiris sent a long pass upfield. Preston Judd received the ball and saw that Skahan was unguarded in the box. He sent the pass over to Skahan, who drilled a right-footed shot into the net in the 49th minute.
Sporting KC nearly knotted the score in the 68th minute but Capita Capemba sent his hard right-footed shot just over the middle of the net.
Seven minutes later, San Jose took a two-goal lead. Romney had the ball come to him in the box and his right-footed shot caromed off SKC’s Justin Reynolds and inside the far post.
In the 86th minute, SKC’s Stephen Afrifa ripped a high right-footed shot that Daniel tipped to ensure it went over the net.
Sporting KC held an 11-10 edge in shots and possessed a 4-3 advantage in shots on target.
Sporting KC took a 1-0 in the 27th minute as Dejan Joveljic slid a pass around a defender to Bartlett, who sent a right-footed shot that caromed off the hand of Daniel en route to finding the back of the net.
The Earthquakes tied the score in the 45th minute when Tsakiris passed the ball to Skahan, who easily knocked it into the net.
–Field Level Media
