Earthquakes Increase Lead in West

Mark Chung scored in the 41st minute and Pat Onstad recorded his eighth shutout of the season for the San Jose Earthquakes in a 1-0 victory over Real Salt Lake on Saturday night at Salt Lake City.

The Earthquakes, who improved to 11-4-9, doubled their lead over FC Dallas for first place in the Western Conference to six points and improved to 2-0-1 against Salt Lake (5-14-4). The Galaxy is tied for second place with Dallas after its 3-2 win at D.C. United.

Chung got open on the right side and got a shot past goalkeeper Jay Nolly, who was making only his second career start.

The goal held up and the Earthquakes stopped a flurry of chances for Salt Lake in the final seconds. Onstad stopped all six shots he faced.

Nolly, who started for D.J. Countess as struggling Real shuffled its lineup, finished with three saves.

Real Salt Lake remained nine points behind Colorado for the final playoff spot in the conference.

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Columbus 1, FC Dallas 0 -- Cornell Glen scored in the 81st minute to give the Crew a victory over Dallas in a rain-delayed match at Columbus, Ohio.

Glen redirected a pass from Crew midfielder Chris Henderson, who had maneuvered past Clarence Goodson on the end-line and found space to slip a pass to Glen inside the Dallas penalty area.

Dallas defender Chris Gbandi was spared an own-goal, despite appearing to knock Glen’s shot into the back of his own net. Officials judged the ball would have crossed the goal line anyway.

Goalkeeper Jonny Walker made two athletic saves in second-half injury time to preserve the win for the Crew (7-12-3).

Dallas (10-7-5) is winless in its last seven games.

The game was delayed for 40 minutes because of a thunderstorm.