ST. LOUIS (AP) — Nicholas Gioacchini and Samuel Adeniran both scored twice, Eduard Löwen had three assists and St. Louis City breezed to a 6-3 victory over Austin FC on Sunday night as the league returned to action after a five-week layoff for Leagues Cup play.
Defender Tim Parker scored his fourth goal of the season, using an assist from Löwen in the 22nd minute to give St. Louis City (14-8-2) a 1-0 lead.
Gioacchini stretched the lead to 2-0 at the half when he scored in the second minute of stoppage time with an assist from Löwen.
Gioacchini scored his 10th goal of the season — unassisted — five minutes into the second half to push the expansion club's lead to 3-0.
Austin (9-10-5) got on the scoreboard in the 61st minute on a penalty kick by Sebastián Driussi. It was Driussi's sixth goal this season.
Adeniran answered in the 72nd minute for St. Louis City, scoring unassisted for a 4-1 lead.
Will Bruin used an assist from Jon Gallagher to score for a second time this season to pull Austin within two in the 87th minute.
Tomás Ostrák subbed in in the 87th minute and scored in the 88th to put St. Louis City up 5-2. Löwen picked up his ninth assist of the season on the score.
Emiliano Rigoni scored his third goal this season for Austin, unassisted in the first minute of stoppage time. Adeniran capped the scoring with his sixth netter of the season, unassisted in the fifth minute of extra time.
St. Louis City, which leads the Western Conference by seven points over Los Angeles FC and Real Salt Lake, improved to 9-3-1 at home. The expansion club has won three straight at home and scored multiple goals in all nine victories. St. Louis City beat Austin 3-2 on the road in its inaugural match of the season, scoring twice in the final 15 minutes to pull out the win.
Austin entered play with a 4-1-1 record in its last six matches after going 3-7-4 in its previous 14. Austin scored 14 goals in the six matches after scoring just five times in the previous 14.
Austin travels to play FC Dallas on Saturday. St. Louis City hits the road to play Orlando City on Saturday.
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