Thorrington brace leads Fire past Rapids

Posted: Sat Apr 26 11:55 PM

Bridgeview, IL (Sports Network) - John Thorrington tallied two goals to lead the Chicago Fire to a 2-1 victory over the visiting Colorado Rapids in Major League Soccer action on Saturday night.

"I just think that both of them were from good approach play from my teammates and I just happen to be in the box at the right time," Thorrington said of his two goals. "The first one I don't exactly remember how the ball popped out to me and my thought was just to try to keep it down and hit the target. Thankfully I did and the second one Justin (Mapp) made a great run and played a great ball to me and all I have to do was to take a touch and slot it in. My memory of both of them was thanks to the play of my teammates who got me in those positions."

Thorrington opened the scoring in the 53rd minute when he fired a Tomasz Frankowski rebound home, past Rapids' goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul. Thorrington doubled the home side's lead six minutes from time when he fired a Mapp cross into the net for his second goal of the campaign.

Two minutes later, Colorado's Tom McManus pulled a goal back when he fired a Christian Gomez corner kick into the back of the net, but that was as close as the Rapids could get.

"We played really well in the first half and created a few chances, but for 20 minutes in the first half we just switched off and it cost us the game," McManus said. "I was happy to get my first goal, but it didn't count for anything because we lost tonight."

After starting the season 2-1-0, the Rapids have dropped two straight to fall to 2-3-0 while Chicago improves to 3-1-1, good for second in the Eastern table, two points behind the Columbus Crew.

Colorado will look to end its losing streak when it hosts D.C. United on March 4 while Chicago is back in action a day earlier, at New England.