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Jaqua's hat trick propels Dynamo to win over Salt Lake

Sep 9, 2007 - 4:24 AM HOUSTON (Ticker) -- The Houston Dynamo can thank Nate Jaqua for keeping them ahead of FC Dallas in the Western Conference Standings.

Jaqua scored three goals and Corey Ashe added three assists as the Dynamo snapped a two-game winless slide with a 4-3 win over Real Salt Lake at Robertson Stadium on the University of Houston campus.

Jaqua sent a header past Salt Lake keeper Nick Rimando in the 57th minute to give Houston a 4-1 lead, but the visitors answered with a pair of strikes in the last 34 minutes of the match.

"It feels really great (to get the hat trick)," Jaqua said. "It feels even better that we got the win. They really made it rough on us there toward the end.

"I think we did let down a little bit, and after they got that second goal, that really got them going. We can't do that, especially with the teams that we will be playing later on."

Kyle Brown scored his first career MLS goal, but Houston (12-7-6) held on for the win to remain three points ahead of FC Dallas (12-8-3), who beat Toronto FC at home on Saturday.

Eddie Robinson scored the other goal for the Dynamo, who have played a league-high 25 games and have just five matches left on the regular season schedule.

"It's good to win," Robinson said. "But we can't give them the chances that we gave them at the end. We got three points, and we will take it. But there are still two teams out there who can catch us and they will if we keep playing like we did tonight."

Fabian Espindola scored the other goal for Real Salt Lake just 12 minutes after Jaqua scored the first goal of the game just six minutes in.

"The one thing that we can take out of this game is that we showed a lot of character," RSL coach Jason Kreis said. "Being down, 4-1, and then scoring the two late goals shows that we were not willing to quit."

Despite the positive comments, Kreis said he was unhappy with his team's disorganization, especially around Rimando.

"There has to be questions," Kreis said. "There has to be questions about why some of our guys are just running around (within) the six-yard box of our goal."