Sounders get lucky in 3-0 win

In case somebody thought the Seattle Sounders had run out of fortuitous bounces in a season full of good fortune, think again.

Leighton O'Brien had the go-ahead goal and an assist, and the Sounders rang up three second-half tallies for a 3-0 win over the Atlanta Silverbacks in a USL First Division match Wednesday in front of 3,691 fans at Qwest Field.

"I'm happy for Leighton," Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said, "because if I'm sitting in Leighton's shoes and had all the frustration he's had throughout the year to play in spurts and deal with injuries, I feel good for him to play well. He deserves it."

Goalkeeper Chris Eylander recorded his 12th shutout overall and 11th in USL play, and Seattle ran its unbeaten streak to 14 matches.

The Sounders (19-6-7 overall, 13-5-6 USL First Division) hiked their league-leading point total to 45 points, four in front of second-place teams Portland and Montreal.

Seattle got lucky in the 47th minute when O'Brien curved a shot toward the goal from 13 yards away. He took the shot from the left side toward the right; the ball bounced off Atlanta goalkeeper Ryan McIntosh, altering the course of the ball back to the left and into the net for a 1-0 Sounders lead.

The goal was O'Brien's second of the season; Roger Levesque picked up the assist, his 10th of the campaign.

"That goal kind of sucked the life out of them," Schmetzer said. "You could see their shoulders drop after that."

O'Brien then set up Taylor Graham in the 81st minute for a header just inside the top of the right post for a 2-0 lead. It was O'Brien's fourth assist of the year.

"The whole season I've been up and down," said O'Brien, who missed 14 matches with various injuries, most recently a nagging calf problem. "It's just been crazy stuff. ... I'm more happy with the performance than the stats."

Levesque tallied his eighth goal of the season on a rebound of a Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar shot for a 3-0 advantage in the 84th minute.

Levesque's volley to the right post on a short flick pass by O'Brien in the 45th minute was Seattle's best scoring chance in the first half.

Notes

• Kevin Sakuda made his 117th consecutive start overall and 103rd in USL Division play.

• Vince Coluccio, a construction magnate and former owner of the Sounders, has died after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 77.

Coluccio, also one of the original investors in Wild Waves, an amusement park in Federal Way, bought the Sounders, then of the North American Soccer League, after the 1979 season and sold them in 1982.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.