Emilio Renteria scored twice in the second half in the Columbus Crew's 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night in Major League Soccer.
Renteria converted a penalty kick in the 50th minute, then scored off a pass from Dejan Rusmir 9 minutes later for his third goal of the season by slotting the ball past goalkeeper Jay Nolly from about 12 yards.
''This is the first time I've scored with the left foot,'' Renteria said.
All three of his goals this season have come in the past two games and three of the Crew's seven scores have been by penalty kicks.
''They hardly had a good chance in the first 45 minutes,'' Vancouver coach Teitur Thordason said. ''Unfortunately, we made two mistakes in the beginning of the second half and that changed things.''
Omar Salgado, the 17-year-old star forward selected first overall in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft, scored his first MLS goal for Vancouver in the 69th minute.
''I'm very happy and hopefully there's a lot more to come,'' Salgado said. ''It was disappointing we didn't get back in the game. We should have tied it. We gave it our all.''
Salgado nearly got the equalizer in the 79th, but William Hesmer stopped his attempt.
That was the second of two close calls for the Crew. Moments earlier, defender Josh Gardner made a goal line block on Nizar Khalfan's shot.
''All I really did was react to it,'' Gardner said. ''The ball came across. I turned and slid. I thought it might have been offside. I did what I could to clear it.''
Columbus improved to 3-1-3, and Vancouver dropped to 1-4-3.
