His former teammates left him alone, and Kai Kamara made them pay.

The San Jose Earthquakes forward, alone on the left side of the penalty box, knocked a shot into the right corner of the net in the 52nd minute. That unassisted score gave the Earthquakes a 2-1 win over the Columbus Crew in a Major League Soccer Central Coast Showcase game at Alex G. Spanos Stadium on the Cal Poly campus Friday night.

The Showcase concludes with a 1 p.m. game Sunday game at Spanos between the Earthquakes and D.C. United.

Kamara was a Crew member for the last two years. Afterward Friday, his mind seemed to be more on the expansion Earthquakes' first win over a MLS team than on the two goals he scored against his former mates.

“We beat Cal Poly 1-0 (Wednesday night), but we beat an MLS team tonight,” said Kamara, who graduated from Leuzinger High School in Lawndale. “Hopefully, we can keep this rolling.”

The Earthquakes are 2-1-1 this MLS pre-season. The Crew is 3-2-0.

Kamara scored in the 17th minute with an assist from forward Gavin Glinton. Eddie Gaven, on a good pass from Alejandro Moreno inside the penalty box, responded for the Crew in the 33rd with a shot that went between backup Earthquakes goal keeper Dan Benton's legs and smack into the middle of the net. The score was 1-1 at halftime.

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Benton redeemed himself in the second half. He made a diving save on the Crew's So Guilherme with Guilherme about a foot from him in the penalty box.

Benton replaced Earthquakes starter Preston Burpo, who was pulled in the 21st minute. Burpo seemed slightly shaken up when he left.

The Earthquakes are filling the MLS void in San Jose that the departure of the San Jose Clash created. The Clash won the MLS championship in 2001 and 2003. The franchise moved to Houston and is the two-time defending MLS titleist as the Houston Dynamo.

Speaking about his winning goal, Kamara said, “As a forward, that's what you do - you look for open space. I wasn't thinking (beforehand) about scoring, but when you have the shots you have to take them.”

The crowd of 3,861 seemed neutral in its team preference at the outset. The gathering quickly became loudly pro-Earthquakes, however. Like any good partisan crowd, spectators booed loudly at non-calls they thought should have been fouls against the Crew and noisily protested foul calls against the Earthquakes.

And there were numerous fouls called - 18 against the Earthquakes and 13 against the Crew. Bodies were down all over the pitch much of the game.

“It was a raucous crowd - they were into it, it was fun,” said Glinton. Glinton is a Brentwood native who played for the Los Angeles Galaxy last season.

“Things got chippy out there sometimes. That's not always a bad thing.”

There were a lot of youngsters in the crowd, and they seemed to enjoy themselves despite the chill and an intermittent light rain.

“This is fun. These guys are pretty fast,” said Zach Bullard, an eight-year-old from Arroyo Grande. “This is my first MLS game.

“I was right down there when (the Earthquakes) scored,” the youngster said, indicating the railing near the corner of the end zone.

Thea Widmann and Mara Basich-Bease, two 10-year-olds from San Luis Obispo, are veterans at MLS matches.

Basich-Bease said, “This is our fifth one.”

“We just got here,” said young Widmann. “We're looking forward to the second half.”

The Earthquakes struck on the first big scoring chance for either team. Before the Crew's defense could close in on him, Glinton got the ball to Kamara. Kamara split two defenders and scored.

“Gavin gave me a nice ball in there,” said Kamara.

Glinton said, “This was a good win. We're still trying to get a feel for each other. This is still very much a work in progress.”

Feb. 23, 2008