Real Salt Lake: Borchers saves road deadlock for RSL

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Real Salt Lake had already watched New England fight back from two goals down in Saturday night's 2-2 draw at Gillette Stadium.

Now the game lingered in stoppage time when Taylor Twellman beat Nick Rimando to the ball and nodded towards the vacated net.

Nat Borchers had already watched Steve Ralston deposit his poor clearance past Rimando to bring the Revolution back within one in the 77th minute. Twellman scored three minutes later to tie the score.

As Twellman's effort headed toward goal, Borchers didn't want to see what had looked like a comfortable win turn into an agonizing loss.

"In the the back of my mind, I knew it had own goal written all over it," Borchers said.

Instead of putting it into his own net, Borchers recovered to clear the danger as RSL escaped with a point it deserved.

"If that had gone in, it would have been a different message completely," Real Salt Lake head coach Jason Kreis said. "There wouldn't even be a half a smile on anyone's face in here. That was a big play on his part."

With the draw, RSL (9-10-8, 35 points) leapfrogged FC Dallas (8-9-10, 34 points) and Colorado (10-13-4, 34 points) for third place in the Western Conference after Houston beat Colorado, 3-1, on Saturday night.

Kreis' direct, pressing tactics frustrated the Revolution for most of the match while the offense clicked into gear. A first-half chip from Javier Morales and a second-half laser from Andy Williams staked RSL to a 2-0 lead, but the frenzied finish saw all the hard work fade away.

"For me, if someone would have offered me a point before we played the first minute tonight, I would have taken it," Kreis said. "No question about it. Obviously the way we got that point is disappointing, but it's still a point."

Morales continued his breakout season by consolidating RSL's early advantage. Revs' keeper Matt Reis cleared Robbie Russell's clearance to Morales. The Argentine midfielder chipped Reis and the recovering Michael Parkhurst to stake RSL to an early lead with his sixth goal of the season.

The lead allowed RSL to pressure the Revolution into submission. The normally fluid Revs couldn't switch the point of attack and RSL remained composed and compact in defense.

Morales spearheaded the second on the counterattack as New England showed signs of life in the second half. A delicate chip set up Williams for an emphatic finish to the far post.

"(Morales) is a special player," Kreis said. "He not only showed it in his goal. He showed it in his assist and he showed it in a lot of the possession he had tonight."