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Sounders 0, Earthquakes 4

Aug 2, 2009 - 11:58 PM SANTA CLARA, Calif. (STATS) - Mired in a four-game winless streak and in last place in the Western Conference, the San Jose Earthquakes needed to catch a break.

They got two Saturday from the Seattle Sounders FC.

The first came in the second minute when a shot deflected off Seattle's Osvaldo Alonso into his own net, and the other came in the 33rd minute when James Riley was ejected for a tackle on San Jose's Bobby Convey.

The Earthquakes took advantage as Cornell Glen, Darren Huckerby and Chris Wondolowski scored in the second half en route to a 4-0 victory over the Sounders.

"Even after the red card, I felt good today," San Jose coach Frank Yallop said. "I thought, 'You know, we're going to win today.' I really did. I think them going with a man down made it easier for us to score a few goals at the end. But I feel we really deserved to win."

It was the most lopsided victory and first shutout of the season for the Earthquakes (4-10-5), who snapped an 0-2-2 skid dating to a June 20 win over Los Angeles.

"We can't play well all the time, but I think the standard was there in our endeavor and our fight and our scrapping, which we've been missing a little bit this year," Yallop said. "So it was a good all-around team performance."

While San Jose remained at the bottom of the conference, Seattle (7-4-8) stayed in second place in the West - six points behind Houston.

Alonso's accidental shot represented the lone goal of the first half, which saw rough play result in five flags, including the red one given to former Earthquakes player Riley.

"We basically took ourselves out with the red card," Seattle coach Sigi Schmid mumbled while shaking his head. "Not the best way to enter the second half."

The Earthquakes posted their first win in three tries this season against Seattle following a come-from-behind 2-2 draw with D.C. in their previous match on July 25.

"Momentum is definitely important," San Jose captain Jason Hernandez said. "Not only last week, but we think we've been playing really well the past couple of weeks."

That much was evident in the second half as the Earthquakes pounded short-handed Seattle starting in the 54th minute, when Glen collected a pass off assists by midfielders Shea Salinas and Ramon Sanchez before finding the top of the net on the left side for his third goal of the year.

Huckerby scored his third of the season in the 78th minute by easily finding an empty net after his initial shot was deflected off Seattle's Stephen King.

Six minutes later, Salinas collected his second assist by intercepting a Seattle pass and squaring for Wondolowski, who also notched his third goal.

"If you win any game 4-0, it's great," Huckerby said. "Against the Sounders, it's even better. We deserved it."

San Jose will be looking to post back-to-back wins for the first time this season when it hosts Eastern Conference-leading Columbus on Saturday.

"This was only one game," Yallop said. "We've got to come out of the gates next week against a very good Columbus side."

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Story from: STATS LLC, http://www.stats.com.