Lights follow five-goal loss with easy win

It took hitting rock bottom to trigger Lights FC’s best performance of the season.

A week after losing on the road to LA Galaxy II 7-2, the Lights defeated Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC 4-1 on Saturday night at Cashman Field for their most lopsided win of the year and their first in the regular season since March 31.

Goals by Carlos Alvarez, Freddy Adu, Samuel Ochoa and Matt Thomas powered the team to its highest-scoring game in United Soccer League play in front of 5,712 fans and helped it break a three-game losing streak.

The Lights had a multigoal lead for the first time since their regular-season opener, and each player won $100 in Plaza poker chips as a result of the team’s incentive program with the casino-hotel.

Alvarez started the scoring in the 24th minute after his 25-yard strike curled inside the far post for his fourth goal of the season.

Adu’s lefty finish came after halftime, in the 47th minute, as the former American soccer prodigy celebrated his 29th birthday by scoring his first goal with the Lights (3-4-4). The team’s supporters even serenaded him with a chorus of “Happy Birthday to You.”

Ochoa followed by heading the ball into the net in the 58th minute for his first goal of the regular season. Ochoa, who won five headers in the box in the first half, has a goal and an assist in the Lights’ past two games after having none in their first nine.

Thomas added an exclamation point to the win with his second goal of the season in the first minute of stoppage time.

The only blemishes for the Lights were Switchbacks captain Josh Suggs’ goal in the 77th minute and a late scuffle between Colorado Springs forward Marty Maybin and Lights defender Marcelo Alatorre.