Rookie Jorge Ruvalcaba scores twice to lead Red Bulls to 2-1 victory over Sporting KC

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Rookie Jorge Ruvalcaba scored twice in the first half and the New York Red Bulls held on for a 2-1 victory over Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night.

The Red Bulls took a 1-0 lead in the 4th minute when the first-year forward took passes from Gustav Berggren and 18-year-old Julian Hall and scored. Berggren’s first assist this season was his second in 16 career matches.

Ruvalcaba used another assist from Hall, along with one from 21-year-old rookie Rafael Mosquera, to score three minutes into stoppage time and the youngest team in the league led 2-0 at the half.

Ruvalcaba has seven goals through his first 15 appearances. Hall already has a career-high four assists after collecting one in his first 38 matches. Mosquera has two assists and has come off the bench in nine of his 10 appearances after debuting and playing nine minutes in a match last season.

Calvin Harris scored for the second time this season to cut it to 2-1 in the 61st minute. Manu García had his fourth assist and rookie Taylor Calheira added his first in his 10th appearance.

That was the only blemish against Ethan Horvath, who finished with seven saves for the Red Bulls (6-5-4) in his 15th career start.

Stefan Cleveland totaled two saves in his fifth start for Sporting KC (3-9-2), which falls to 1-4-2 at home.

New York is 3-0-1 in its last four outings and improves to 3-3-2 on the road.

The Red Bulls take a 23-22-15 lead in the all-time series between the charter members.

Up next

The league takes a break for the FIFA World Cup and will return to action on July 16.

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