Jack Lynn was at the right spot to score the game’s lone goal in the 89th minute to lead visiting Orlando City to a 1-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday night.
Pedro Gallese made four saves while recording his second consecutive shutout as Orlando City (4-5-4, 16 points) improved to 2-0-1 over their past three matches.
William Yarbrough made three saves for the Earthquakes (3-10-1, 10 points), who lost their second straight game.
The Orlando City goal began with a rush up the left side by Ivan Angulo.
Angulo sent a cross to Martin Ojeda, who was wide open in the box. Ojeda mishit the shot with his left foot and the ball went toward Lynn in the middle of the box and he knocked a right-footed shot past Yarbrough for his second goal of the season.
The Orlando City goal came shortly after two huge chances for the Earthquakes.
In the 86th minute, San Jose had a break up field and standout Cristian Espinoza had the ball on the right. Espinoza stopped and sent a hard left-foot shot toward Gallese but it was wide left of the net.
Two minutes later, San Jose’s Jack Skahan had a big chance but Gallese got his arm on Skahan’s shot to knock it away.
Orlando City had a 12-11 edge in shots with both teams placing four on target.
The Earthquakes had four solid chances in an 11-minute sequence of the first half.
Carlos Gruezo’s right-footer in the 26th minute, Hernan Lopez’s left-footer in the 28th minute and Rodrigues’ close-range right-footer in the 30th minute were all stopped by Gallese.
Seven minutes later, Rodrigues had another chance but sent a right-footed shot wide right of the net.
Later in the half, Orlando City’s Nicolas Lodeiro sent a left-footed shot wide to the left in the 45th minute. In the first minute of first-half stoppage time, Lynn’s header missed to the right.
In the second half, Orlando’s Dagur Thorhallsson sent a right-footed shot wide to the right in the 59th minute.
The Lions had another chance 14 minutes later but Luis Muriel’s right-footed shot was stopped by Yarbrough.
–Field Level Media
