SANTA CLARA, CA – Toronto marched into Buck Shaw stadium and collected three valuable road points against the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday night as Dwayne De Rosario grabbed a brace to put his team in second place in the Eastern Conference.

De Rosario – introduced in the second half after just returning from Canadian National Team duty – collected a long ball on a break away in the 66th minute and cooly slotted the game winner past Quakes keeper Joe Cannon. He also netted Toronto’s final goal in added time to seal the 3-1 victory.

The early stages of the match were largely uneventful, as neither side was able find any sort of rhythm and most of the play occurred between the boxes. Toronto strikers O’Brian White and Chad Barrett were resigned to shooting from 25 and 30 yards and, on the few occasions when San Jose was able to penetrate, none of the players connected with the service.

The tempo of the match turned in the 31st minute, when Toronto’s Chad Barrett opened the scoring.

In one of the many lackadaisical back-passes by the Quakes defense to open the game, Barrett pounced on a botched header from San Jose defender Jason Hernandez and rolled a slow dribbler past keeper Joe Cannon, who had come charging off his line.

The sloppy play was reminiscent of a defense that gave up 50 goals last season, not the squad that had posted four consecutive shutouts leading into tonight’s matchup.

Independent of San Jose’s sloppy defense, Toronto also has keeper Stefan Frei to thanks for its valuable win.

Frei twice stifled the Quakes on two chances with superb reaction saves. The first save came in the 23rd minute, after Toronto defender Amadou Sanyang inexplicably passed the ball to San Jose’s Bobby Convey. Convey drove to the end line and sent in a cross to Joey Gjertsen, who stabbed a solid volley at the near post only to have Frei smother it brilliantly.

Frei again made his presence known in the opening minutes of the second half. San Jose forward Ryan Johnson snuck in behind Toronto’s defense and crossed a ball to Quakes leading scorer Chris Wondolowski. Unbothered, Wondolowski rose and headed the ball low and away that looked like a sure score until Frei parried it wide.

San Jose kept pressuring Toronto, though, with a pair of solid chances in the ensuing minutes, both of which involved striker Johnson. Johnson sent a header to Convey, who unleashed a left-footed blast from just beyond the 18, but Frei proved up to the task and made a beautiful diving save. Johnson then missed the target on an open head ball which arrived by way of Ramiro Corrales.

Toronto looked like it might run away with the game when De Rosario scored his first goal of the match after a long ball from right back Dan Gargan sent him on a one-on-one against Cannon. De Rosario ran past his defender and, with one touch, slipped the ball past Cannon to nab his seventh goal of the season.

San Jose refused to give up, however, and kept the final minutes interesting. In the 76th minute, Quakes captain Ramiro Corrales netted a header on a corner kick from Convey. In an all out effort to pull level, San Jose switched to a five-man attack and proceeded to bombard Toronto’s back line for the rest of the match.

With the match about to end, Cannon left his spot under the San Jose goal and joined the attack. The move backfired, though, as the keeper slipped and hit the turf on the Quakes’ last possession of the game. De Rosario took advantage of the opportunity and scored his second of the match as simply passed the ball into an empty net.

After Saturday night’s result, Toronto improved its record to 5-4-1 and now sits in second place of the Eastern Conference behind Columbus.

With the loss, San Jose fell to 5-3-1 and is in a three-way tie for third place in the Western Conference.


Scoring Summary:

TOR -- Chad Barrett 4 (unassisted) 31

TOR -- Dwayne De Rosario 7 (Dan Gargan 1) 66

SJ -- Ramiro Corrales 1 (Bobby Convey 6) 76

TOR -- Dwayne De Rosario 8 (Nick LaBrocca 1) 94+


Misconduct Summary:

TOR -- Martin Saric (caution; Reckless Foul) 8

TOR -- Chad Barrett (caution; Unsporting Behavior) 31

SJ -- Bobby Burling (caution; Simulation) 58

TOR -- Julian de Guzman (caution; Tactical Foul) 93+


Lineups:

Toronto FC -- Stefan Frei, Dan Gargan, Nana Attakora, Adrian Cann, Nick Garcia, Jacob Peterson, Nick LaBrocca, Martin Saric (Julian de Guzman 46), Amadou Sanyang, Chad Barrett (Sam Cronin 82), O'Brian White (Dwayne De Rosario 46). Substitutes Not Used: Gabe Gala, Raivis Hscanovics, Maksim Usanov, Jon Conway.

San Jose Earthquakes -- Joe Cannon, Chris Leitch (Scott Sealy 77), Bobby Burling, Jason Hernandez, Ramiro Corrales, Joey Gjertsen (Arturo Alvarez 46), Brandon McDonald, Brad Ring (Cornell Glen 59), Bobby Convey, Ryan Johnson, Chris Wondolowski. Substitutes Not Used: Ramon Sanchez, Ike Opara, Steven Beitashour, Jon Busch

Referee: Jorge Gonzalez
Referee's Assistants: Chris Strickland; Frank Anderson
4th Official: Edvin Jurisevic
Attendance: 10,214