San Jose Earthquakes forward Christian Espinoza celebrates his game winning goal over the Colorado Rapids on Saturday MAR 11, 2023. (Dario Cruz-Tectonic Takes)

by Marko Uklaovic

SAN JOSE — Christian Espinoza is proving he’s the guy you count on to seize the opportunity.

Espinoza’s first goal of the season in the 78th minute, proved to be the game winner as the San Jose Earthquakes shutout the Colorado Rapids 1-0 on Saturday evening at Pay Pal Park.

San Jose has won two of its first three matches to start the season. Colorado had its third consecutive game without scoring a goal. It is the first time since 2015 that they have gone scoreless in its first three matches to start the season.

Espinoza, who is only five assists away from becoming the all-time assist leader in Quakes history, gathered the rebound off of a Miguel Trauco shot. The Argentinean striker dribbled to the right before firing a right-footed shot top from just beyond the box top shelf past Rapids goalkeeper William Yarbrough for his first goal of the season that sent the Quakes faithful into a frenzy.

“He is lethal with his right foot in terms of a cross or a shot,” said Quakes head coach Luchi Gonzalez regarding Espinoza. “Can we get him opportunities to get more shots? That is something that we want to keep working on. Also with his left foot, he is good at cutting inside and scoring with his left as well. He showed that in preseason. We are really proud of him and a player that is relentless with his energy and his mentality, and then when he has a little bit of space and can get a shot or a cross in, we know he can create issues. We want to keep doing that.”

San Jose (2-1-0) had the pitch tilted in its favor for the majority of the first half as the generated numerous scoring chances. Their best chance came in the 35th minute when Espinoza’s attempt from 25 yards out was knocked off the cross bar when Yarbrough was able to get a hand on the ball keeping it out of the back of the net.

Carlos Akapo made his first career MLS start at right back for San Jose and made an impact with helping out on the offensive attack while providing stability on the backline.

Colorado (0-2-1) played on their heels throughout the opening 45 minutes as were not able to generate any quality scoring chances as the Quakes backline held down the fort.

Throughout the second half San Jose came close to breaking through on the scoreboard as they generated four quality scoring chances, that included two saves from Yarbrough, before Espinoza’s tally.

Gonzalez praised his team’s effort and was happy San Jose came away with three points and not just one.

“You saw me celebrate it (Espinoza’s goal). I’m very happy for him (Espinoza) and the team find a goal because it wasn’t easy. Colorado defended well. Look had we not scored, and it ended up tied, I would’ve still been proud of how the guys played. Of course, I would’ve been disappointed had we not scored but would’ve been proud with the identity of our team we’ve established since training in the preseason,” Gonzales said.

Espinoza was glad he was able to contribute to the team’s success this early into theseason.

“We always try to find the free spaces to take that kind of shot, especially in front of the goal. Sometimes we can do it, and sometimes we can’t. But for that it’s very important that the team is committed to move the ball side to side and today I think that we had a great game,” Espinoza said.

‘Quakes goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski, who made his first start of the season, had a perfect clean sheet as Colorado failed to generate any shots on target during the match. Yarbrough made three saves on four shots on target in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished with five corner kicks. Colorado had three.

San Jose is now 32-25-18 all-time vs. the Colorado Rapids, including a 19-9-9 record at home. They went 1-4-2 against Colorado last season.

The Quakes have only lost once when hosting the Rapids at PayPal Park since its opening in 2015 (6-1-2).

Midfielder Jackson Yueill made his 150th MLS appearance. Yueill is now tied with Jon Busch for the ninth most appearances in club history.

Tonight’s attendance was 13,383.

UP NEXT: San Jose will play its inaugural game against St. Louis City next Saturday at 5:00pm at CityPark.