Tim Parker scored his second goal of the season — and his first since he scored the inaugural goal in his club’s history — to help St. Louis City SC to a comfortable 2-0 win over the visiting Colorado Rapids on Saturday night.
Jared Stroud scored his fourth goal of the season during an early outburst by St. Louis (11-7-2, 35 points) that was enough to maintain its place atop the Western Conference standings.
Roman Burki made three saves to keep his fifth clean sheet of the season, and only his second in a home victory.
Colorado (2-10-8, 14 points) saw its winless run extend to nine matches and failed to score for a fourth consecutive game to stretch its scoreless streak to exactly 360 minutes.
Despite trailing from the very early stages and having every reason to send numbers forward, the Rapids were outshot 20-9 overall and 7-3 in terms of efforts on target.
William Yarbrough made five saves for the Rapids and couldn’t be blamed on either goal as Colorado conceded multiple goals for a sixth time during their nine-match slide.
Parker scored the very first goal in the history of St. Louis, which entered the league as its 29th team and newest expansion side to begin the season back on February 25.
But the center back hadn’t found the net again until he was able to sneak free on a corner kick in the fourth minute Saturday.
Stroud was involved, as the pair crossed their runs inside the box during a corner kick that resulted in two Colorado defenders obstructing each other.
That allowed Parker to run free to reach Aziel Jackson’s service and flash a header past Yarbrough.
Stroud doubled the lead only seven minutes later, finishing an attack that began when Samuel Adeniran reached Kyle Hiebert’s throw-in down the left ahead of a Colorado defender.
Adeniran rounded the corner and then crossed toward the penalty spot to Stroud, who finished low past Yarbrough to continue an exceptional season that has seen him earn a first MLS All-Star appearance later this month.
–Field Level Media
