SANDY, Utah (AP) — Andrés Gómez had a goal and two assists, the second on Braian Ojeda’s first career goal to rally Real Salt Lake to a 3-2 victory over the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday night.
Houston (8-7-6) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 8th minute when Ibrahim Aliyu used the first assists this season from Sebastian Kowalczyk and defender Franco Escobar to score his sixth goal of the campaign.
Gómez pulled Real Salt Lake (11-3-7) even in the 22nd minute with his 11th goal this season. Bode Hidalgo notched his first assist of the season and the second of his career on the score.
Rookie Matt Crooks and Gómez set up Diego Luna for a goal in the 42nd minute to give Real Salt Lake a 2-1 lead at halftime. It was the fourth netter of the season for Luna and the fifth assist for Crooks.
The Dynamo got some help to even the score in the 55th minute on an own goal by Real Salt Lake defender Andrew Brody.
Ojeda took passes from Gómez and Cristian “Chicho” Arango in the 67th minute and scored the winner. It was the ninth assist this season for Gómez and the 11th for Arango, who leads the league with 16 goals.
Zac MacMath finished with one save in goal for Real Salt Lake.
Steve Clark saved six shots for the Dynamo.
Real Salt Lake pulls into a three-way tie with Los Angeles FC and the Los Angeles Galaxy atop the Western Conference standings. LAFC travels to play the Galaxy on Thursday in a holiday matchup.
Real Salt Lake will host Atlanta United on Saturday. Houston returns home to play Los Angeles FC on Sunday.
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