Quakes arrive in N.Y. riding wave

and no goals -- from their first two matches. The Rapids were back home after finishing off a two-game road swing with an impressive victory at the New England Revolution.
• The Earthquakes owned the majority of the play and were rewarded two minutes before the halftime break. A pass from James Riley into space found Ronnie O'Brien outside the right corner of the box, and though Colorado goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul blocked his first shot, the Irishman was quickest to the rebound and potted it for San Jose's first goal since 2005.
• Just after the hour mark the Earthquakes sealed their first victory. Ned Grabavoy went on a surging run down the right before slipping an inside through ball for Kei Kamara. He cut inside of a Rapids defender before lashing a low shot that bounced off the inside of the left-hand post and into the goal.
• For the second consecutive week, Earthquakes head coach Frank Yallop kept the same starting 11.
• Here's Yallop's team (4-4-2): Joe Cannon - Jason Hernandez, Ryan Cochrane, Nick Garcia, James Riley - Ronnie O'Brien (Shea Salinas 62), Ned Grabavoy, Ramiro Corrales (Ryan Johnson 84), Ivan Guerrero - Gavin Glinton (Joe Vide 56), Kei Kamara. Substitutes Not Used: Preston Burpo, John Cunliffe, Eric Denton, Adam Smarte
• "I think we kept them off balance with our play," said Yallop. "We talk about things we can do tactically to break them down before the match. It doesn't always work and you think the guys aren't listening, but tonight I think the guys took the game plan to heart and pushed the ball well. I think Kei Kamara was dangerous all night and Gavin Glinton supported him well and overall all of the guys played well."
TEAM NEWS
• After becoming the third expansion team to start without goals in their first two games, the Earthquakes felt it was important to score - and win - soon. "It was our first win so that was really important," Yallop said. "Getting it in the third game was good; if you wait until the fourth, fifth or sixth game to get it, the season is slipping away. So it is something to build off of."
• Still, Yallop said, he felt San Jose did enough in their home opener to have broken their maiden. "I think we played well last weekend and didn't get anything out of the match and tonight we took our chances well," said Yallop. "I thought we created some good ones and Joe [Cannon] made some good saves at the right times."
• Added Ronnie O'Brien, who scored the inaugural goal for the reconstituted Earthquakes: "Last week we felt that we had made some strides forward in how we played but we couldn't score; this week we didn't play as well but got two goals and we did what we had to do to win. We got a lead and then the second half we came out, defended well, scored our second goal and won the game."
• The Earthquakes also felt a key was closing down Christian Gomez in the playmaking role for the Rapids. They will face a similar task with the Red Bulls' Claudio Reyna.
• "We can't let the good players play around us," said Yallop. "We don't want to kick them but we want to close them down. We want to play tight on the good players and make it difficult for them to play. We did a very good job on Christian Gomez tonight -- he's a very good player in this league."
• After losing in the season opener against a former club, goalkeeper Joe Cannon was happy to come away with a win in Colorado, where he played from 2003-06.
• "I already lost one against a former team earlier this year in Los Angeles so it feels good to come back here and win," Cannon said. "However, more importantly we needed these three points and I think that they will be important down the road."
• Kei Kamara added the second goal, from an attacking unit that has been questioned from the formation of the squad by Frank Yallop. "All the attacking players were feeling a bit of pressure because we were hearing that we couldn't score goals, but we were able to break through with two tonight. We showed tonight that we can find the net. More goals are going to come," Kamara said,
• For Kamara, the goal had added emotional value. Nine days earlier, his brother Yusiffu passed away at his home in Sierra Leone. Kamara plans to pay tribute to his brother - with whom he spent two months during the offseason - throughout the year.
• "Every single game this year, my first goal and every goal, everything I do this year is just going to be for him," Kamara said to the San Jose Mercury-News. "Every game this season is going to be dedicated to him. It's somebody that I love, somebody that raised me up. He's resting right now, and I know he's looking down on the whole team. He's going to follow us this year, I know that."
• On Thursday, the Earthquakes signed forward Peguero Jean Philippe on loan from Brondby IF of Denmark. Jean Philippe, who possesses a green card, spent three seasons in Major League Soccer, playing for the Colorado Rapids and the New York Red Bulls. He joined MLS in 2004 and played just more than two years with Colorado, where he appeared in 46 games and recorded 14 goals and 11 assists. In April 2006, he was traded to the New York Red Bulls, where he scored six goals in 12 games, while also adding two assists. In July of that year the Haitian forward was transferred to Danish Superliga club Brondby IF. Jean Philippe is also a Haitian international, appearing with the national team 10 times in his career.