Jack Skahan Scores Twice as San Jose Earthquakes Beat Sporting KC 3-1 to Extend Club-Record Start

The San Jose Earthquakes keep finding new ways to win, and on Saturday night in Kansas City they found a brand new hero. Jack Skahan scored on either side of halftime, Dave Romney added a third, and the Quakes came from behind to beat Sporting Kansas City 3-1 at Sporting Park.

That makes it six wins in seven matches for a San Jose side that, according to the AP, is off to the best start in club history. MLS called it a club-record start, and it came without Timo Werner, who missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury, per MLS. For Sporting, it was a third straight loss and another night of explaining how a lead turned into a lopsided scoreline.

Bartlett Finds the Back of the Net

Sporting actually had the better of the early exchanges. Diego Borges headed a Manu García cross just wide in the ninth minute, and Calvin Harris dragged a shot from the middle of the box past the right post in the 18th. San Jose's best looks came from Preston Judd, who fired over in the sixth minute and headed just wide in the 14th.

In the 27th minute, the hosts broke through. Dejan Joveljic slid a through ball for Jacob Bartlett, who ran beyond the back line and hit a first-time shot from the center of the box. The AP said it deflected off goalkeeper Daniel on its way in and called it Bartlett's first career goal in MLS. It was also only the second goal San Jose had conceded all season, per the AP.

Bartlett, a midfielder who usually plays deeper, gave all the credit to his teammate. "Deki (Joveljic), he did all the work for me, all I had to do was pass it in the net," he said afterward, per Sporting KC. Asked how it felt, he added: "To be honest, I can't really describe it."

Five Minutes That Flipped Everything

The match paused twice for Harris to receive treatment, and Sporting never quite recaptured its rhythm. Right before halftime, San Jose pounced. Niko Tsakiris whipped in a cross and Skahan finished first time from the center of the box in the 44th minute, a shot the AP said came from the top of the 6-yard box. One-all at the break, with six minutes of added time to digest it.

Then came the dagger. Four minutes into the second half, Sporting committed numbers forward, lost the ball, and San Jose went the other way. Judd fed Skahan on the break and the forward slotted his finish into the bottom right corner from the middle of the box. The AP described it as his first multi-goal game in MLS.

Sporting head coach Raphael Wicky did not sugarcoat it. "There is the second goal, which obviously, we attack, we have a good attack, but we cannot attack with eight guys," he said, per the club. "Then you go into a counterattack at home."

The Turning Point: The Counter at 49

The Skahan equalizer stung, but it was the 49th-minute goal that broke Sporting. A team searching for confidence had just been punished for doing the thing it wanted to do, which was push forward and play on the front foot. From there, the Quakes could sit in their shape and wait for the next opening.

It arrived in the 75th minute. Daniel Munie teed up Romney, and the defender buried a right-footed shot into the bottom right corner for a two-goal cushion. Sporting threw on Stephen Afrifa, Taylor Calheira and Kwaku Agyabeng and finally made Daniel work, but the San Jose keeper saved Justin Reynolds in the 77th minute, Afrifa in the 86th and Calheira's header in the 87th.

"The goals we concede are too easy," Wicky said, a line Sporting used as the headline for its postgame quotes. "In general it's just too easy to score goals against us."

Star Watch

Skahan was perfect: two shots, two on target, two goals. He also had a hand in Beau Leroux's blocked chance in first-half stoppage time. Skahan credited the locker room for the hot start. "We're not playing with egos. We pass to the open guy. We attack together. We don't care who scores," he told MLS.

Tsakiris supplied the cross for the opener, and both the AP and MLS credited him with two assists on the night. ESPN's data lists one for him, with Judd assisting the second goal and Munie the third. Either way, he was San Jose's creative heartbeat, and Romney chipped in a goal from left back on two shots.

Daniel made three saves and did not need to do much more. For Sporting, Bartlett's goal was the bright spot in a performance that faded badly after the break.

Stats That Matter

• Shots: 10 apiece, but San Jose scored on all three of its shots on target.
• Saves: Daniel 3, John Pulskamp 0.
• Possession: San Jose 51.5 percent, Sporting 48.5 percent.
• Passing: San Jose completed 449 of 514 passes; Sporting completed 407 of 483.
• Tackles: Sporting 23, San Jose 15, a sign of how much chasing the hosts did.

What It Means

San Jose moves to 6-0-1 with 18 points. MLS said the win pulled the Quakes level on points with first-place Vancouver in the Western Conference, trailing only on goal differential, and noted they had conceded a league-low two goals. This was a third straight win after victories at Vancouver and at home against San Diego FC, and San Jose has now beaten Sporting twice this season, after a 3-0 win in the opener in February. Next up is a Sunday night trip to LAFC on April 19, and Arena said Werner "should be ready this week."

Bruce Arena, now in his second season in charge per MLS, was not getting carried away. "To be in this position at this point in the season is great, but we know it's a long haul," he said.

Sporting falls to 1-1-5 with 4 points. The three-game skid includes losses to Colorado, Real Salt Lake and now San Jose, and Wicky made clear the problem is not effort but too many easy goals. The schedule does not get kinder, with the next league assignment a trip to Vancouver on April 17.

Closing Take

San Jose plays like a band that lost its frontman and discovered the bassist can sing. Werner sat, Skahan stepped up, and the hits kept coming. Sporting, meanwhile, keeps writing the first verse and forgetting the chorus. Arena's line said it best: "It's 34 games."

Stats from ESPN's match data and the AP recap via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by Sporting Kansas City (sportingkc.com) and MLS (mlssoccer.com).