Rookies propel St Louis City to victory over Dallas

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Defender Anthony Markanich and Nökkvi Thórisson both scored their first goals in league play three minutes apart late in the second half and St. Louis City held off FC Dallas 2-1 on Wednesday night.

Markanich, who subbed in to begin the second half in his second appearance of the season for St. Louis City (15-9-2) after coming over from Colorado, broke up a scoreless match when he scored unassisted in the 82nd minute. Markanich made six starts in 13 appearances over the past two seasons for the Rapids.

Thórisson used assists from Eduard Löwen and Njabulo Blom to find the net in his third career appearance. Blom had a hand in a goal for the first time in his rookie season. Blom has made 13 starts and 18 appearances.

Thórisson's goal became necessary when rookie Eugene Ansah scored unassisted in the fifth minute of stoppage time. It was Ansah's first career goal in just his third appearance for Dallas (9-10-6).

Roman Bürki tallied three saves for St. Louis City. Maarten Paes saved four shots for Dallas.

Dallas saw a six-match unbeaten streak in all competitions and a six-match winning streak against expansion teams both end. Dallas beat St. Louis City 2-0 at home earlier this season.

St. Louis City, which has a seven-point lead over defending champion Los Angeles FC and the Seattle Sounders atop the Western Conference standings, improves to 10-3-1 at home and 10-0-0 when scoring multiple goals at home.

St. Louis City became the fastest expansion club to score 50 goals its last time out, doing so in 25 matches. Atlanta United set the season mark at 70 in 2017.

Dallas returns home to host Atlanta United on Saturday. St. Louis City travels to play Sporting Kansas City on Saturday.

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