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		Earthquakes offense comes shines, defeat Houston 3-2 By Randy Leighton March 28, 2009

	Santa Clara, CA - The San Jose Earthquakes faced the Houston Dynamo tonight, looking to shake the loss from last week. In impressive fashion, San Jose put three goals on the net tonight, holding on to beat Houston 3-2. The Houston/San Jose rivalry didn’t lean in favor of either team last year. They ended up with a series record 1-1-1. Both teams are in the Western Conference, so winning today was important for early season standings. It took both teams 10 minutes to start connecting with their passes and plays. After that, the match heated up quickly. The Quakes started to put pressure on the Houston defenders and putting shots on the board. By the 20th minute, Houston’s offense started finding their groove and they were returning the favor to San Jose’s defenders. As the game entered the 30th minute, the hard work would start paying off. San Jose’s Ryan Johnson would utilize his speed on a pass that went pass the defenders, racing to beat the keeper to the ball and he put a shot on the left post, bouncing in for a goal. Only 3 minutes later, San Jose would capitalize on that momentum again. Arturo Alvarez would get a look at the goal from the center penalty area and fire it in past Pat Onstad, the Dynamo keeper. Houston wasn’t sitting by, they showed their mettle and came right back 1 minute later for an answer. Stuart Holden carried the ball quickly up the right side, almost undefended, and fired a high cross in front of the net. The ball would find a leaping Chris Wondelowski, headering a commanding goal into the net. The Dynamo pressed the Quakes defense, and Brad Davis fired a hard left footed shot through traffic, beating Cannon. As the half was about to end, San Jose struck again. Cam Weaver took a pass and quickly shot to the right side corner, just beating Pat Onstad. San Jose lead the Dynamo 3-2 going into half time. While the second half of the game was no less intense, it did not produce any goals for either side. Houston did seem to do most of the attacking in the second half, as they put up attack after attack on the goal. In the last 10 minutes of the game, and in stoppage, Houston just could not mount an effective attack. San Jose did not just go into defensive mode in the second half, they continued to mount offensive efforts, including bringing in offensive substitutes Shea Salinas, Quincy Amarikwa, and Pablo Campos right at the 90th minute. San Jose plays again next Sunday, April 5th, as they face Kansas City in an away game.