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Thorrington nets pair as Fire top Rapids

Apr 27, 2008 - 4:36 AM BRIDGEVIEW, Illinois (Ticker) -- The Chicago Fire came up empty despite a season-high shot total in their last contest. On Saturday, they focused more on quality than quantity.

John Thorrington scored two second-half goals, lifting the Chicago Fire to a 2-1 win over the Colorado Rapids on Saturday.

Chicago recorded 19 shots in Monday's 1-0 loss to Kansas City, but only put five of those on goal. In this contest, the Fire managed to get eight of their 12 shots on goal, making life hectic for Colorado goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul.

"I think our attacking group played well," Chicago coach Denis Hamlett said. "I think from the first minute their movement was good. They created some chances just like last week. Last week, we didn't finish on those chances, but tonight a different guy stepped up and finished on two. We got the win and that was the important thing."

Thorrington's unassisted goal in the 53rd minute opened the scoring. Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who was storming down the right side, fed Tomasz Frankowski, who had his shot blocked by Rapids defender Facundo Erpen.

However, the ball found its way to Thorrington, who fired a right-footed blast into the upper right corner of the net past Coundoul to give Chicago a 1-0 lead.

The 28-year-old midfielder added his second tally in the 84th minute when Justin Mapp raced down the left side and passed to Thorrington in the center of the field. From about 15 yards out, Thorrington beat Coundoul again - this time to the left side - for a 2-0 advantage.

"I just think that both of them were from good approach play from my teammates," Thorrington said. "I just happened to be in the box at the right time.

"The first one, I don't exactly remember how the ball popped out to me. My thought was just to keep the ball down and hit the target. Thankfully I did, and the second one, Justin (Mapp) made a great run and played a great ball to me and all I had to do was to take a touch and slot it in."

Tom McManus halved the deficit just two minutes later, but the Rapids (2-3-0) could not net the equalizer.

"We played really well in the first half," McManus said. "We created a few chances, but for 20 minutes in the first half, we just switched off and it cost us the game. I was happy to get my first goal, but it didn't count for anything because we lost tonight."

Jon Busch recorded four saves for the Fire (3-1-1) while Coundoul turned away six shots for Colorado.