PORTLAND, Ore. – Playing the first of three matches in seven days, T2 scored two first-half goals to defeat Orange County Blues FC 2-1 at Merlo Field on Sunday afternoon. Defender Steven Taylor and midfielder Victor Arboleda both recorded goals for T2, helping the club win its second straight game and increase its unbeaten run to three games.



T2 (7-11-4, 25pts) opened the scoring in the 28th minute when midfielder Blake Bodily sent in a delivery from a corner kick that picked out Taylor, who headed the ball into the lower left corner of the net for his first goal of the season. Two minutes later, Arboleda dispossessed the ball at midfield from an Orange County player and laid it off to midfielder Villyan Bijev. After taking on two defenders, Bijev played a ball inside the box to Arboleda, who fired past Orange County goalkeeper Joshua Cohen for his third goal of the season.



Portland nearly scored in the 27th minute when Bijev was picked out by defender Brent Richards from the left edge of the penalty area, and his headed attempt was cleared off the line by an Orange County FC defender.



Orange County Blues FC (9-11-4, 31pts) cut T2’s lead to one in the 89th minute after Bijev was whistled for a foul inside the box. Rauhofer stepped up to the penalty spot and placed his right-footed attempt into the back of the net.



T2 goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh finished the match with two saves, including a stop on Orange County midfielder Richard Chaplow’s attempt from the top of the box in the 10th minute and a save on forward Max Rauhofer’s effort from the edge of the box in the 56th minute.



Next up, T2 will travel to play Real Monarchs SLC at Rio Tinto Stadium on Wednesday, Aug. 17; kickoff is set for 6 p.m. (Pacific). The Aug. 17 match will also be available via a live, high-definition web stream at www.timbers2.com.



Postgame Quote Sheet

T2 head coach Andrew Gregor

On the momentum from last week’s come-from-behind win against LA Galaxy II carrying over to today’s result …

“I think so. The boys are motivated. We’re at that time of the year where as much as we talk about development the points are important for us right now to try and work our way up the table. I think there’s a little confidence with them as well. That’s a good thing and they can learn from those experiences. They can learn from the experience today and just get better.”



On the two goals scored by Portland within two minutes of each other…

“I think we’ve been a little bit more dangerous on set plays lately. The service and the runs have been good. Obviously having Steven Taylor in there the last couple of games to really get the guys dialed in on all those little things is important. It’s great that we’re able to help him get minutes, but it’s really good for our young guys to just see what things you have to do to be successful and get to the level that they want to get to.”

On the performance of the defense today…

“I thought it was good. They’re a difficult team to play against, they’ve got some pace up top. I thought the defense did a good job. With the conditions, I think the heat got to them a little bit later in the game. The game itself slowed down because of the conditions, but they did a good job. They did what they needed to do to finish off the game. You’d like to not concede that goal, but they were able to be disciplined enough to get us three points.”



T2 defender Steven Taylor

Overall impressions of the match…

“Getting the 90 minutes in the bank was what I wanted. I’ve been playing in practice games on the training ground with T2. The lads have been fantastic with us. Caleb [Porter] has got us involved and is making sure I’m doing the extra training with a mini preseason that I’ve been doing out here. I’ve adjusted very quickly to it and the training has paid off. I’m feeling good and I’m feeling fit. I could have had a couple of goals today.”



On getting his head on back-to-back corners, scoring on the second…

“It was a good delivery of the ball. [Blake Bodily] put it in the mixer and he let us attack the ball. It was one-v-one in the box. It was a bit of movement and I headed the corner. The ’keeper got it right on the line. I was a bit disappointed with that, but then the second one came in and I just made sure I headed it across the ’keeper in the far corner. Once I knew I headed, I knew he wasn’t going to get that.”

T2 midfielder Nick Besler

On the performance of the defense…

“Whenever you have a player like Steven Taylor come in, he’s always organizing and always talking. The leadership that he brings in right away from the start helps out tremendously. We would have liked to keep the clean sheet, but for the most part we defended well together as a unit and we’ll definitely take the three points.”



On building off of this game heading into the next two matches…

“We hit a little bit of a rough patch, but it’s not like we played poorly in those games. We just didn’t get the results. I think things are starting to come our way. It’s the last fourth of the season and we want to come out with as many wins as possible and I think we’re putting ourselves in a good position to do that.”

