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First-place Dynamo, Revolution battle to draw

Jul 23, 2007 - 12:23 AM FOXBORO, Massachusetts (Ticker) -- In a battle of first-place teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences, the New England Revolution and Houston Dynamo battled to a 3-3 draw on Sunday.

The Eastern Conference-leading Revolution (7-3-6) took a 1-0 lead into halftime on Pat Noonan's third goal of the season in the 32nd minute.

Taylor Twellman picked up his first assist of the season when he fed a pass to Noonan at the top of the box. Noonan then lofted a kick over the charging goalkeeper, Pat Onstad, and the high-lofted ball found the net despite the effort of Dynamo defender Craig Waibel, who was trying to chase the ball down and prevent the goal.

The goal snapped Houston's MLS-record streak of 727 shutout minutes. Prior to Noonan's tally, the last goal allowed by the Dynamo was during a 2-1 win over the Columbus Crew on June 10.

"When you have guys like Twellman, Noonan, and (Andy) Dorman coming at you, it is hard to keep them away, and when they get chances, more often than not they are going to hit their target," Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear said. "I don't agree with the third goal in a way, but for us to create streaks is nice. But in the end we like to win games."

Houston (10-6-4) knotted the score in the 49th minute. Eddie Robinson set up Dwayne De Rosario, who rocketed a shot from 30 yards past goalkeeper Matt Reis into the upper left corner of the net.

New England regained the lead just two minutes later when Noonan collected a ball in the box and passed to a wide-open Twellman in the middle. The striker promptly buried the shot to the back of the net for his eighth tally of the season.

Houston's Brian Ching gave Houston the lead right back, scoring back-to-back goals in a span of a little over a minute.

In the 60th minute, Ching collected a pass and beat Reis to tie the game at 2-2.

Ching the scored his sixth goal of the season a minute later. Stuart Holden sailed a free kick from about 40 yards out to Ching, who headed the ball into the left corner to give Houston its first lead of the game.

"That is the life of a striker I guess," Ching said. "You are quiet for 60 minutes, pop up for five and score a couple of goals."

The lead did not last. Five minutes later, De Rosario was called for a hand ball in the box, setting up a penalty kick for the Revolution. Shalrie Joseph stepped up to take the kick, and his shot to the lower left corner was stopped by Onstad.

Unfortunately for the Dynamo, the play was blown dead due to a handful of Houston players entering the box prior to the kick. On his second attempt, Joseph went to the opposite corner to beat Onstad, closing out the scoring at 3-3.

Joseph has four goals on the season, three of coming on penalty kicks.

"We all kind of let down when we get a lead and shoot ourselves in the foot," Twellman said. "We keep giving points away. I think we have honestly given away 10 points. I could give you easily 10 points that we should have."