Herrera helps Dynamo start fast in victory over Whitecaps

HOUSTON (AP) — Héctor Herrera and Griffin Dorsey scored first-half goals and the Houston Dynamo breezed to a 4-1 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday night. 

Houston (12-10-7) ran its regular-season unbeaten streak to seven (4-0-3), its longest run since an eight-match streak in 2012.

The Dynamo scored first on an unassisted goal by Herrera in the 13th minute. It was his fourth goal of the season. 

Houston took a 2-0 lead into halftime when Griffin Dorsey took a pass from Corey Baird in the 44th minute and scored for the first time this season.

Houston pushed its lead to 4-0 on goals by Iván Franco — his third of the season — in the 73rd minute and Ibrahim Aliyu — also his third — unassisted in the 84th minute. Brad Smith assisted on Franco’s goal. 

Steve Clark was in line for his league-leading 12th clean sheet of the season for Houston until an own-goal by defender Erik Sviatchenko put Vancouver (11-9-8) on the scoreboard in the 90th minute. He had four saves. Yohei Takaoka saved one shot for Vancouver.

The home side has lost just once in 22 all-time meetings between the clubs.

Corey Baird had a three-match goal scoring streak at home end. He was trying to become the first Dynamo player to score in four straight home matches since Erick Torres in 2017.

The Whitecaps entered play having won three of their last four road matches for the first time since the 2018 season.

Vancouver travels to play Real Salt Lake on Saturday. Houston travels to play Sporting Kansas City on Saturday.