San Jose Earthquakes striker Jeremy Ebobisse battles for the ball against Houston Dynamo midfielder Artur during the Dynamo’s 1-0 win over the Earthquakes at Pay Pal Park on Wednesday JUL 17, 2024. (Houston Dynamo)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE— Daniel Steres picked a great time to get his first goal of the season.

The Houston Dynamo fullback scored in the 86th minute as his heroics propelled the Dynamo to a 1-0 shutout victory over the San Jose Earthquakes on Wednesday evening at Pay Pal Park.

San Jose has lost seven of its last eight matches as it anchors the bottom of the Western Conference. Houston has won three of its past five matches and maintained the eight spot in the conference as it has a four-point lead over 9th place Minnesota United.

Houston (9-7-7-34 points) had the first scoring opportunity in the first 45 minutes. Sebastian Ferreira’s header attempt missed wide left after a corner kick in the 20th minute. Then six minutes later, the Dynamo had its closest chance at breaking the seal when Griffin Dorsey’s shot from the right wing was knocked away by Quakes goalkeeper Jacob Jackson, who made his second start of the season, in the 26th minute.

San Jose (4-18-2-14 points) had two quality scoring chances from Jeremy Ebobisse. First, in the 25th Ebobisse’s header attempt sailed wide left off of a cross from Hernan Lopez. Then in the 39th minute, another header attempt went wide right off of a Cristian Espinoza free kick from the left end line.

It was one of the Earthquakes best defensive games of the season, but they weren’t able to finish the few scoring chances they had.

“I told the guys you know; I thought it was a game where we brought a lot of energy,” said ‘Quakes interim head coach Ian Russell. “We brought a lot of fight and when you do that, you usually win those games, especially at home. I have no complaints when a team will work that hard. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I told the guys (to) continue to do that and we’ll be fine.”

The Quakes best scoring attempt in the first half came from Benji Kikanovic in the 31st minute when his running header attempt from the left wing sailed high over the net off of a free kick from Espinoza from 25 yards out.

Houston fired 13 shots in the first half with five of them on target that were saved by Jackson. Dynamo goalkeeper Steve Clark didn’t have a face a shot on net in the first half as San Jose only attempted four total shots.

The Earthquakes were awarded a penalty in the 50th minute by referee Natalie Simon when fullback Micael dos Santos tripped Espinoza inside the box. However, after a VAR review it was determined that dos Santos touched the ball first before hitting Espinoza’s foot.

The Dynamo had a good scoring in the 67th minute when Coco Carrasquilla sent a back pass over to Dorsey who kicked it very high over the net despite having a good look on net.

Houston finally broke through with time winding down in the match. McKinze Gaines sent a pass down low near the goal-line to Amine Bassi. The French midfielder then crossed the ball back into the middle of the box where an unmarked Steres one-timed the ball out of the air with his left foot into the left corner of the net for his first goal of the season.

Steres came into the match in the 73rd minute as he replaced Dorsey by Dynamo head coach Ben Olsen who wanted fresh legs deep into the match.

“It just comes down to the small details. There’s been a lot of games where we’ve given up goal late (in the match) and it kind of bites us in the ass. We gotta tighten that up. If we don’t, we’re going to keep losing,” Kikanovic said.

Things got chippy when Hector Herrera and Rodrigues had a moment of pushing and shoving after a foul near the left sideline in the fourth minute of stoppage time. No cards were issued by Simon despite the scuffle.

San Jose finished with no shots on target during the match and nine total, while Houston had 22 total shots. Clark earned his six clean sheet of the season despite not having to make a save throughout the evening. Jackson made six saves on seven shots on net in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished with five corner kicks. Houston had seven.

San Jose is 10-19-4 in the all-time series with Houston.

UP NEXT: San Jose travels up north to take on Minnesota United on Saturday 7/20 at 5:30pm at Allianz Field.