A regular season house of horrors turned into a site of celebration Thursday night as the Colorado Rapids beat FC Dallas 1-0 for their first regular season victory at Pizza Hut Park.

With the three points, Colorado vaults over three teams and into a third place tie with Chivas USA in the Western Conference standings. The top three teams in each conference automatically advance to the MLS playoffs, which begin in November.

The Rapids had not only failed to win at Pizza Hut Park, but had not won in Dallas since May 5, 2001, a stretch of 13 games. It was also the first road win for Colorado since a 1-0 victory over the New England Revolution on April 12.

Mike Petke scored the game’s only goal in the 60th minute, his first goal since Sept. 8, 2007. Terry Cooke drove in a corner kick from the far side and Petke, standing alone in the penalty area, headed the ball across the face of goal and into the side netting. 

The tally broke a 283 minute scoreless streak, the longest of the season, for Colorado whose last goal was a strike from Conor Casey in the 47th minute of a 2-1 victory against the Kansas City Wizards on August 16 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

The game was not without its drama as Dallas had seven shots in the 30 minutes after Colorado scored and forced two of Preston Burpo’s seven saves in the last half hour. For Burpo, it was his second shutout of the season and first since June 21 against Houston.

The Rapids came out and controlled the tempo having the majority of the possession in the first 20 minutes. Tom McManus saw his header off a Cooke corner saved spectacularly by Dario Sala in the 28th minute. 

The 0-0 score at halftime marked the first game since July 19, also at Dallas, that Colorado kept their opponents off the score sheet before half. Dallas’ best chance to score in the first stanza came when Jeff Cunningham hit the woodwork from a sharp angle after Burpo forced him wide on a breakaway.  

Colorado will return home from this three-game road trip next week, as they take on the Chicago Fire at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Sunday, September 14 at 1:00 p.m. MT.

Scoring Summary:
COL – Petke (Cooke) 60

Lineups:
Colorado Rapids – Preston Burpo, Kosuke Kimura, Cory Gibbs, Mike Petke, Jordan Harvey, Terry Cooke, Pablo Mastroeni (John DiRaimondo 53), Nick LaBrocca, Colin Clark, Conor Casey (Omar Cummings 82), Tom McManus (Facundo Erpen 67)
Substitutes not used: Chris Sharpe, Jose Burciaga Jr., Christian Gomez, Jacob Peterson

FC Dallas – Dario Sala, Drew Moor, Aaron Pitchkolan, Pablo Ricchetti, Blake Wagner, Michael Dello-Russo (Dax McCarty 65), Bruno Guarda, Marcelo Saragosa (Dominic Oduro 74), Anthony Wallace (Eric Avila 52), Kenny Cooper, Jeff Cunningham
Substitutes Not Used: Ray Burse, Brek Shea, Abe Thompson, Jamie Watson

Misconduct Summary:
DAL – Moor (Caution) 89

Referee: Tim Weyland

Referees Assts.: Paul Scott; Bill Dittmar
Fourth Official: Jasen Anno
 
www.coloradorapids.com