SANDY, Utah (ABC4 Sports) – After having its 15-game unbeaten streak snapped ten days ago, Real Salt Lake moved back into a first place tie with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Houston Wednesday night at America First Field.

Braian Ojeda scored his first MLS goal in the 67th minute to break a 2-2 tie, as RSL improved to 11-3-7 on the season, tied with LAFC and the LA Galaxy with 40 points atop the Western Conference.

“The most important thing for me tonight was the attitude,” said RSL head coach Pablo Mastroeni. “Just the aggressive mentality from the group today is everything that we’ve been. And to really turn it up a notch and create the chances that we did tonight is really a testament to the quality we have in our locker room.”

Chicho Arango, Justen Glad named MLS All-Stars

Houston came into the game on a six-game unbeaten streak, and the Dynamo opened the scoring in the 8th minute when Ibrahim Allyu bent a shot around Zac MacMath to give them a 1-0 lead.

RSL leveled the match in the 22nd minute as Houston goalkeeper Steve Clark came out of the net, and Andres Gomez beat him to the ball to chip in his 11th goal of the season, tying him for eighth most in the league.

Diego Luna, trying to make a case to make the U.S. Olympic team gave RSL a 2-1 just before the half in the 42nd minute, rocketing in a shot from 20 yards out for his fourth MLS goal of the season.

The Dynamo found the equalizer again early in the second half, as Hector Herrera’s shot deflected off RSL defender Andrew Brody’s leg for an own goal, tying the match at two.

But Chicho Arango found a wide open Ojeda, who took his time before blasting in the game-winning goal, sending the crowd in Sandy in a 4th of July frenzy.

“It was awesome,” Luna said about Ojeda’s first career goal. “I think this guy is this up and down, always everywhere, making tackles, given us the ball. I think for him to get that moment and kind of seal the deal for us was was cool to see him do that.”

RSL’s 15-game unbeaten streak ends with 1-0 loss to LA Galaxy

“The belief that we have in the locker room,” Mastroeni said. “We had a really good performance on both sides of the ball.”

Emeka Eneli and Arango both missed point black chances that could have put the game away earlier, but RSL will take the three points at home.

“It’s really hard to score goals,” Mastroeni said. “At the end of day, I think it’s a really fair result.”

Real Salt Lake outshot Houston 20-7 overall, and 10-2 in shots on goal.

RSL is back on the pitch Saturday at home against Atlanta United.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.