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Arnaud, Hohlbein lead Wizards past Revolution

Jun 14, 2009 - 4:12 AM By STEVE BRISENDINE STATS MLS Correspondent

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (STATS) - Major League Soccer's worst first-half team finally got something going before the break.

Coming into Saturday night's game against New England, the Kansas City Wizards had scored just three first half-goals in 13 games. They matched that total in the first 45 minutes of a 3-1 victory over the short-handed Revolution - a win that broke a four-way tie for third place in Eastern Conference.

"We talked before the game that if we put the work in now, it's going to make our life easier down the line, as opposed to the last few years waiting until the last few games trying to make the playoffs," said defender Jimmy Conrad, who assisted on Kansas City's final goal.

Davy Arnaud and Aaron Hohlbein scored in the first half?for the?Wizards (5-5-4), who?also benefited from an own goal that deflected off New England defender Jeff Larentowicz in the 36th minute.?

Shalrie Joseph scored for the Revolution (4-4-4), who?played without Emmanuel Osei after his ejection in the 31st minute .

Kansas City had its first three-goal game since a 3-1 victory over New England in the regular-season finale last year.

Arnaud opened the scoring in the 19th minute, converting a perfect give-and-go with Claudio Lopez and slotting the ball past Matt Reis from point-blank range.

"I saw Claudio pull out wide, and I slipped it to him and I tried to get myself into the box and get into a good spot," Arnaud said. "Claudio played a great ball for me to finish."

Joseph tied it in the 28th with a back-post header off a cross from Steve Ralston.

In the 31st minute, Lopez hauled Osei down by the left arm and was given a yellow card. Osei retaliated by kicking Lopez in the back of the leg and was shown a red card. It was the third straight game at CommunityAmerica Ballpark with a red-card ejection.

New England coach Steve Nicol called Osei's actions "stupid" but stopped short of blaming the ejection for his team's loss.

"That?not why we lost the game," Nicol said. "We lost because we weren't very good. We have no excuses."

Five minutes later, Kansas City's Herculez Gomez fired a shot that Reis was only able to deflect. The ball struck Larentowicz and rolled in to give the Wizards a 2-1 lead.

"With 10-15 minutes left in the half, we've got to get to halftime," Ralston said. "We just need to get back and defend. We didn't do a good job. We gave up two goals and obviously at that point, it's a big uphill fight."

Hohlbein made it 3-1 in the 39th minute, also with the help of a deflection. Reis parried Josh Wolff's header on a corner kick from Lopez, but Kansas City's Jimmy Conrad nodded the ball to the center of the 6-yard box for Hohlbein's easy tap-in.

"It was a good corner by Claudio," Hohlbein said. "Josh popped it do the near post and after the deflection Jimmy was there. He put himself and headed it back across. I was in the right place at the right time and I was able to capitalize."