Ezequiel Ponce and Lawrence Ennali score to lift Houston over LAFC
Ezequiel Ponce and Lawrence Ennali both scored their first MLS goal, Steve Clark had six saves and the Houston Dynamo beat LAFC 2-0 on Saturday night at BMO Stadium.
Ponce and Ennali were acquired by Houston (11-8-7) in July and, for at least one night, provided some punch to a Dynamo club that went into the game with 35 goals, third fewest in the Western Conference.
Griffin Dorsey played a ball-in off a free kick and, after a poor clearance by LAFC, Ponce rolled a one-touch shot inside the back post to give Houston a 1-0 lead in the 28th minute.
With Los Angeles being such an important market for MLS, the rise of the Galaxy and LAFC has to be making league commissioner Don Garber happy.
Ennali ran onto a perfectly placed through ball played by Franco Escobar and outraced a defender to the center of the area, before beating goalkeeper Hugo Lloris and tapping into a wide-open net to make it 2-0 in the 72nd. Lloris finished with four saves.
LAFC (14-6-5) lost for just the second time — with 10 wins — in its last 14 games.
Ennali went off in the 88th because of a noncontact injury.
