St Louis City uses two PK goals to beat Dynamo

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Tomás Ostrák scored in between penalty-kick goals by Eduard Löwen and Nicholas Gioacchini as St. Louis City breezed to a 3-0 victory over the Houston Dynamo on Saturday night.

Löwen put the expansion team on top for good with a PK goal in the 9th minute. Ostrák stretched the lead to 2-0 six minutes into the second half, using assists from Lucas Bartlett and Löwen to score for a second time this season. Gioacchini finished off the scoring in the 83rd minute with his penalty kick. Löwen, who became the first player to score in three straight matches for SLC, and Gioacchini have both scored five goals on the season.

Roman Bürki finished with four saves to earn his fifth clean sheet of the campaign for St. Louis City. Steve Clark saved two shots for Houston.

St. Louis City (9-4-1) has scored three or more goals in eight of its first 14 matches. SLC was just the fourth club in history to do it seven times in its first 13 matches.

Houston (5-7-3) falls to 2-10-6 in its last 18 matches against first-year clubs. The Dynamo are 1-11-5 on the road against expansion teams. The club's only road win was a 2-0 victory over the Portland Timbers in 2011.

Houston tied a club record last time out, yielding six goals in a loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps. The Dynamo fall to 4-34-12 in their last 50 matches away from home.

The victory moves St. Louis City to the top of the Western Conference standings — one point in front of the Seattle Sounders and three up on defending-champion Los Angeles FC.

The Dynamo return home to host Los Angeles FC on Saturday. St. Louis City travels to Dallas on Wednesday, continuing a match that was abandoned earlier this season.

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