BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Early goals from Lawrence Olum and Luc Harrington gave Portland a comfortable lead, and the Timbers earned a 2-0 victory over the Bakersfield Brigade of the Premier Development League in first-round play of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Tuesday night in Bakersfield.
The Timbers benefited from a pair of goals in the first 18 minutes of play and held strong the rest of the way to get the victory, despite playing their third road match in five days after recent league games at Montreal and Rochester.
“In the end, it was a solid performance,” said Gavin Wilkinson, head coach of the Timbers. “Looking at everything, I thought our team did really well. We scored the two goals early and were able to take it a bit easy after that.”
Portland now faces Seattle, a 4-1 winner over the Banat Arsenal Tuesday night, in the second round of the U.S Open Cup on June 26.
Portland wasted little time in netting the match’s first goal when Olum found the back of the net with a header, cashing in on a corner kick from Luke Kreamalmeyer in the fourth minute of play.
The Timbers quickly doubled their lead when, in the 18th minute, midfielder Kiki Lara got free down the left side and pinpointed a cross to Harrington, whose scoring header made it 2-0.
Goalkeeper Bayard Elfvin made a key save in the 86th minute to preserve the shutout and help the Timbers advance to the second round of the in-season tournament.
Next up for the Timbers is a home friendly against AC Milan Primavera at PGE Park on June 19; kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
Lineups:
POR – GK Elfvin, D S. Thompson, D J. Thompson, D Morrison, D Griffin, M Lara, M Higgins, M Taylor, M Olum (Jordan, 78), F Harrington (Bagley, 69), F Kreamalmeyer
BAK – GK Cisneros, D Ashurst, D Gore (Pinto-Barbosa, 68), D Singh, D Rodriguez, M Orneias (Gay), M Alesci, M Guzman, M Lopez (F. Gomez, 70), F M. Gomez, F Aguilera-Navarro (Williams, 78)
Scoring Summary:
POR: Olum (Kreamalmeyer), 4
POR: Harrington (Lara), 18
