Christian Ramirez and Myrto Uzuni scored within 12 minutes of each other in the second half and Brad Stuver turned away four shots for his second straight clean sheet to lead host Austin FC to a 2-0 win over struggling St. Louis City on Sunday.

The Verde (3-4-4, 13 points) have captured consecutive games via identical scores and have turned around a season that had seen them suffer through a seven-match winless swoon.

St. Louis City (1-6-3, 6 points) are now winless in their past five matches and have lost three times over that stretch.

Ramirez’s goal in the 69th minute broke Sunday’s scoreless deadlock. The scoring play started from a corner kick that was originally cleared from the zone before Uzuni pounced on the loose ball, sending it back into the box for teammate Dani Pereira.

Pereira then chipped a pass toward the far post that Ramirez leaped to head into the net past St. Louis goalkeeper Roman Burki for a 1-0 lead.

Austin added to the total in the 81st minute when Uzuni booted home a left-footed shot after Jon Gallagher ran down the ball near the end line and passed to Ramirez. Ramirez then fed Uzuni at the center of the box for a shot into the lower left corner that doubled the lead.

The Verde got a boost in the match from the return of midfielder Owen Wolff, who entered in the 82nd minute after missing Austin’s first 10 games of the season.

Austin had an excellent scoring chance in the early minutes but Gallagher’s header from deep in the box with a 24% goal expectancy went over the crossbar. Marcel Hartel countered with a shot on goal for St. Louis City three minutes later that Stuver batted away.

Uzuni was in prime position to open the scoring in the 22nd minute when he headed a free kick toward the net that Burki somehow stopped. Stuver then returned the favor in the 26th minute when he dove to make a save on Simon Becher.

–Field Level Media

Louis Munteanu scored his second and third career MLS goals and short-handed D.C. United earned a 2-0 victory at New York City FC on Sunday afternoon.

Munteanu’s brace completed a third consecutive multi-goal performance after the Black and Red (4-4-3, 15 points) had failed to score in four consecutive league matches.

It came on an afternoon Tai Baribo, D.C.’s leading scorer with six goals, was unavailable because of a thigh injury, while attacker Gabriel Pirani was left out of the team in a coach’s decision.

Sean Johnson made four saves to keep his fourth clean sheet of the season, coming against his former club. That was enough to ensure D.C.’s first consecutive league victories of the season.

New York City (3-5-3, 12 points) held 65% of the possession, but failed to translate that advantage into chances as their league winless run extended to seven matches.

D.C. led 19-8 in overall shots and 7-4 in efforts on target.

Munteanu joined D.C. this offseason from CFR Cluj in his native Romania for a reported $7 million transfer fee, but had mostly been used off the substitute’s bench while the 23-year-old acclimated to a new league and culture.

But Baribo’s absence opened the path for a starting role in last weekend’s dramatic 3-2 victory over Orlando City, in which he scored an 84th-minute equalizer, and he got the nod again from manager Rene Weiler on Sunday.

His first goal came in the 29th minute on an instinctive finish from Jared Stroud’s long throw-in from the right.

The throw dropped in the area of teammate Kye Rowles and then appeared to take a deflection off an NYCFC defender. Munteanu reacted quickly to reach it inside the 6-yard box and poked a first-touch finish past goalkeeper Matt Freese (five saves).

Munteanu’s second came from the penalty spot in the 75th minute.

Referee Ismail Elfath whistled Keaton Parks for a foul on Lucas Bartlett, appearing to signal that Parks had grabbed Bartlett’s neck area.

NYCFC players protested, but replays showed no decisive angles that would’ve led to an overturn. Munteanu stepped up and finished coolly past Freese into the bottom right corner.

–Field Level Media