Paxten Aaronson Penalty Lifts Rapids Past CF Montréal 1-0 for Sixth Straight Home Clean Sheet

Six home games. Six clean sheets. At this point, visiting forwards should probably read the fine print before they board the flight to Commerce City.

Paxten Aaronson buried a 43rd-minute penalty in the bottom right corner, and the Colorado Rapids made it hold for a 1-0 win over CF Montréal on Saturday night at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. It was Colorado's sixth straight home win in league play, all six of them shutouts, a run of home clean sheets the club says is a franchise record. Montréal flew home with a fourth consecutive loss and no goals to show for 11 shots.

Montréal Swings First, Colorado Lands the Blow

Credit the visitors: for 25 minutes, they did not play like a team on a three-game skid. Viktor Radojevic tested Nico Hansen inside two minutes. Prince Owusu forced another save in the 10th off a Dante Sealy setup, and Sealy hammered one from outside the box three minutes later that Hansen gathered in the middle of his goal. Owusu then had two looks on the break in the 21st and 23rd minutes, a drive from distance and a header, and both slid just wide.

Then Colorado took the ball and refused to give it back. Georgi Minoungou made Sébastian Breza work in the 32nd minute and sent one just wide from distance in the 35th. Darren Yapi dragged an effort wide from the middle of the box in the 37th. In the 40th, Rob Holding rose to meet a Keegan Rosenberry set-piece delivery and smacked a header off the crossbar.

A minute after the woodwork, the dam broke. Donavan Phillip went down under a challenge from Radojevic inside the area, referee Drew Fischer pointed to the spot, and Aaronson stepped up in the 43rd minute and rolled his right-footed penalty into the bottom right corner. One shot, one goal, one lead that never moved.

The second half was a slow squeeze. Colorado sent on Morgan Whittaker and Sayed Abu Farhi together in the 54th minute, debuts for both of the club's newest signings, per the Rapids, and the pair immediately added juice. Montréal answered with a triple change around the hour, bringing on Alexis Sánchez, Luca Petrasso and Daniel Ríos, and Ríos fired wide from the middle of the box in the 61st minute off a Petrasso cross.

After that, it was mostly Breza against the world. In the 70th minute, he stopped Hamzat Ojediran's shot toward the bottom corner and then denied Wayne Frederick from the edge of the six-yard box in the same minute. He turned away Abu Farhi in the 73rd and Aaronson from distance in the 75th. Sealy kept firing back for Montréal, forcing Hansen into saves in the 77th and 87th minutes, but neither effort had enough on it to beat him. Whittaker's shot from the right side of the box in the 89th was the last real chance, and three minutes of stoppage time came and went without much drama.

Aaronson Delivers, Breza Refuses to Quit

Aaronson's line was efficient: two shots, two on target, one goal. It was his second straight match with a goal after his strike from outside the box in Wednesday's 1-1 draw at Austin, and the Rapids say it pushed his team-leading goal contributions to 12, split evenly between six goals and six assists. He also committed four fouls, which tells you he was not just hanging around waiting for a penalty to fall in his lap.

Breza was the reason this was not a rout. Six saves, including that 70th-minute double stop that belonged on a highlight reel, kept Montréal within one swing of a point all night. Hansen was quieter at the other end but just as sharp when called on, finishing with five saves and the shutout.

Sealy was Montréal's most persistent threat. Four shots, three on target, and he kept trying to drag his team forward even as the game tilted away from them. He also committed five fouls and picked up a yellow card in the 81st minute, the sign of a winger who was asked to do a little of everything.

Whittaker, meanwhile, made an entrance: four shots in his first Rapids appearance, one on frame.

Three Minutes That Flipped the Night

The match turned between the 40th and 43rd minutes. Holding's header rattled the bar, Montréal had no time to reset, and Radojevic's foul on Phillip handed Colorado the cleanest possible chance to break through. Up to that point, Montréal had put three shots on target to Colorado's one. One penalty later, the visitors were chasing against a team that simply does not concede at home. Radojevic was among the three players Montréal pulled in that hour-mark triple change.

Stats That Matter

• Possession: Colorado 58.5 percent, Montréal 41.5 percent.
• Shots: Colorado 18 (7 on target), Montréal 11 (5 on target).
• Saves: Breza made 6, Hansen made 5.
• Passing: Colorado completed 484 of 551 passes; Montréal completed 319 of 386.
• Corners: Colorado 5, Montréal 1.

The Fortress Holds, the Skid Grows

Colorado moved to 11-2-12 with 35 points, and the club's own recap had the Rapids seventh in the Western Conference after the result. The home form is the whole story. Since a 1-0 win over San Diego FC in July, the Rapids have beaten Austin FC, Sporting Kansas City, LAFC, Real Salt Lake and now Montréal at home without conceding once, and the club notes that six straight home wins ties its single-season record. This was Colorado's ninth league win at Dick's Sporting Goods Park this season. The road is a different story: 3-0 losses at San Diego FC and Columbus sit inside that same stretch. Next up is a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup semifinal at home against St. Louis CITY SC.

Montréal fell to 5-6-14 with 21 points, and the Rapids' recap listed CF Montréal 15th in the East. The skid now reads 7-1 at Inter Miami, 2-0 at Philadelphia, 2-1 at home to Charlotte FC and this one. A cup game might change the subject: Wednesday brings the second leg of its Canadian Championship semifinal at Stade Saputo.

The Upside Down Has a Zip Code

Dick's Sporting Goods Park has become the Upside Down for opposing strikers: they walk in looking normal, and then every shot just stops working. Montréal did not play badly, Breza was outstanding, and Sealy never stopped believing. None of it mattered. Six home matches, zero goals against, and a penalty taker who keeps showing up. If Colorado ever figures out how to pack this defense for road trips, the West is going to have a problem.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Club records, debuts and standings as reported by the Colorado Rapids (coloradorapids.com); Montréal's schedule as reported by CF Montréal (cfmontreal.com).