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The Houston Dynamo and the Columbus Crew played to a 2-2 draw Saturday night at Crew Stadium as a stirring second half produced four goals in the final 31 minutes. Houston received goals from forwards Will Bruin and Brian Ching while Crew midfielder Eddie Gaven scored twice for Columbus.
Bruin scored his for the second straight game, a 59th-minute header that he flicked to the far side netting off an Adam Moffat corner kick, delivering a 1-0 lead for the Dynamo.
Crew veteran Eddie Gaven equalized four minutes later, capitalizing on a breakdown in the Dynamo defense by collecting a loose ball at the top of the box and hitting a slow shot into an empty net after goalkeeper Tally Hall was unable to clear a back pass.
On 74 minutes, Gaven received a nice chest layoff from Columbus substitute Aaron Schoenfeld just outside the penalty area and drilled a hard shot over Hall and under the cross bar for his second goal and a 2-1 Crew advantage.
Seven minutes later Brian Ching produced the vital equalizer. The veteran made a run behind the Columbus defense and was rewarded when Bruin delivered a quality bending cross behind the defense. Ching used one touch with his left foot to place it into the left side of the net for his first goal of the season.
Tally Hall preserved the tie in the 88th minute, stopping a flurry of rapid close-range chances from the Crew. Hall blocked a close header from Olman Vargas and then stopped the rebound from Vargas before Schoenfeld headed a third shot toward an empty net where Houston defender Andre Hainault cleared it off the line.
The offensive affair yielded an 18-15 shot advantage for Columbus while the Dynamo had more shots on goal (8-6).
Scoring Summary:
HOU - Will Bruin 2 (Adam Moffat) 59
CLB Eddie Gaven 1 (63)
CLB Eddie Gaven 2 (Aaron Schoenfeld, Nemanja Vukovic) 74
HOU Brian Ching 1 (Will Bruin) 81
Houston Dynamo Tally Hall; Andre Hainault, Bobby Boswell, Geoff Cameron, Jermaine Taylor; Je-Vaughn Watson (Calen Carr 79), Adam Moffat, Luiz Camargo, Corey Ashe (Macoumba Kandji 89); Brian Ching (Cam Weaver 84), Will Bruin
Substitutes not used: Tyler Deric, Nathan Sturgis, Kofi Sarkodie, Alex Dixon
TOTAL SHOTS: 15 (Will Bruin 4); SHOTS ON GOAL: 8 (Will Bruin 3); FOULS: 10 (Andre Hainault 2, Luiz Camargo 2); OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 6 (Corey Ashe 3; Adam Moffat 3) SAVES: 3 (Tally Hall 3)
Columbus Crew Andy Gruenebaum; Sebastian Miranda, Josh Williams, Chad Marshall, Nemanja Vukovic (Shaun Francis 83); Tony Tchani (Ethan Finlay 72), Danny ORourke, Milovan Mirosevic, Eddie Gaven; Emilio Renteria (Aaron Schoenfeld 67), Olman Vargas
Substitutes not used: Matt Lampson, Cole Grossman, Eric Gehrig, Kirk Urso
Misconduct Summary CLB Tony Tchani (caution) 17, HOU Andre Hainault (caution) 55
The Dynamo will play their sixth consecutive road game on Saturday in Washington when they face DC United at 6:30 p.m. CT. The match can be seen in HD on KPRC Local 2, beginning with the pregame show at 6 p.m. It can be heard on SportsTalk 790 AM, with a pregame show at 6 p.m.