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Sounders, Caps renew Cascadia rivalry

May 15, 2015 - 8:15 PM Vancouver, BC (SportsNetwork.com) - A pair of Western Conference rivals will tangle on Saturday as Seattle Sounders FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC meet in the latest installment of the Cascadia Cup at BC Place.

The home-standing Whitecaps will be hoping to extend their unbeaten streak to a modest three games and potentially rise to the top of the Western Conference following a 3-0 thrashing of the Philadelphia on home soil last week.

Vancouver opened the scoring in the 32nd minute. Cristian Techera sent a perfectly-weighted through ball to a streaking Pedro Morales, whose classy first-time finish put Whitecaps FC ahead.

The 'Caps doubled their lead just before halftime.

Octavio Rivero did the damage this time, taking advantage of an ill-advised Cristian Maidana back pass and muscling off Ethan White before calmly slotting it in.

After a strong finish to the first half, Carl Robinson's side picked up where they left off after the break. Kekuta Manneh nearly made it 3-0 in the 47th minute, tiptoeing around a pair of defenders before getting denied by Sylvestre from close range.

Vancouver then put an exclamation point on the performance with nine minutes to play when Darren Mattocks blasted one past Sylvestre for his third goal of the season to wrap up all three points.

"It was a good performance, said Robinson. "If you go 1-0 down at home, the complexion of the game changes, so we'll enjoy it and move on."

Seattle, meanwhile, will be aiming to get back on the winning track after suffering a 3-2 loss to Columbus Crew SC at Mapfre Stadium last time out.

It took just 10 minutes for the hosts to open the scoring as Kei Kamara got on the end of a low cross from defender Waylon Francis and fired it past Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei.

Seattle equalized in the 24th minute on an outstanding individual effort from U.S. national team captain Clint Dempsey, who whipped a left-footed strike in behind Crew goalkeeper Steve Clark from 25 yards out.

The hosts reclaimed the lead just four minutes into the second half as Federico Higuain got in the scoring act and it was quickly 3-1 just before the hour mark when Kamara bagged his second of the night and seventh of the season.

Dempsey pulled the Sounders within one with 15 minutes to play when he netted his second goal of the night, but it wasn't enough as Crew SC held on through five minutes of added time to claim an impressive three points.

"You can't get too high, and you can't get too low. We're all right. We're a good road team," said Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid. "We're 2-2-1 on the road, and I don't think theres many teams that have that kind of record on the road. "We've just got to get our legs back, get some good training in. At least we're staying on the West Coast for the next trip, so that helps. We don't have to get on an airplane."