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First-half tallies fuel Chivas past Wizards

Sep 28, 2008 - 6:05 AM CARSON, California (Ticker) -- Alecko Eskandarian and Sasha Victorine scored first-half goals as Chivas USA held on for a 2-1 victory over the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday.

The win pushed Chivas (10-10-6) into second place in the Western Conference, while Kansas City (8-10-8) dropped to 1-8-5 on the road.

Eskandarian's tally was scored off a nice cross from Victorine in the 26th minute to give Chivas a 1-0 lead.

"We did a good job this game passing the ball and breaking them down," Eskandarian said. "I was waiting for Sasha and he kept holding the ball up, so I darted for the six-yard box and he put the ball across the box and the rest is history."

Victorine later netted his own goal in stoppage time of the first half, blasting a shot from outside the penalty area into the top corner of the net past Wizards goalkeeper Kevin Hartman.

"This result is pretty good for us," Chivas coach Preki said. "We had some new faces out there tonight and we had to make some adjustments. We got our two goals, I thought we could have had more but we took a good lead into the locker room at halftime."

As dominant as Chivas was in the first half, outshooting Kansas City, 8-2, the visitors tried to rally over the final 45 minutes.

Josh Wolff got the Wizards on the board in the 70th minute, scoring on a wonderful bicycle kick from the middle of the 18-yard box.

Kansas City continued to pressure over the final 20 minutes, but the club was unable to find the equalizer, only firing shots wide of the target.

"I told the guys at halftime to stay organized and focus on not letting them back into the game," Preki said. "I give my guys a lot of credit for fighting their way through the second half."

Hartman finished with three saves for the Wizards, who remain in sixth place in the Eastern Conference.