Alphonso Davies carries Vancouver Caps past San Jose Earthquakes

Alphonso Davies scored his sixth goal of the season, helping the host Vancouver Whitecaps remain within a point of the playoff places following a 2-1 victory over the last-place San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday night at BC Place.

Substitute Nicolas Mezquida added his third goal of the season for Vancouver (11-9-7, 40 points), which moved above the LA Galaxy into seventh place in the Western Conference, just one point behind Portland and Seattle.

Yordy Reyna contributed assists on both goals, bringing his total to nine for the season as the Whitecaps picked up a second victory in as many weekends over San Jose and stretched their unbeaten run to six games.

Vako scored a consolation goal for the Earthquakes in the first minute of second-half stoppage time. But after beating FC Dallas 4-3 at home on Wednesday night, San Jose (4-15-8, 20 points) failed to register a shot on goal until Danny Hoesen finally forced Stefan Marinovic into a save in the 83rd minute.

Jahmir Hyka had a potential last-gasp equalizer blocked by Kendall Waston's sliding challenge.

Davies has now scored three times since Vancouver announced in late July the 17-year-old Canadian would be transferred to German giants Bayern Munich following the season.

He put Vancouver ahead in the 22nd minute after a sequence in which he combined with Kei Kamara and Reyna down the left. Reyna fed the final pass back to Davies, who guided a left-footed finish with his first touch between charging goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell and the near post.

Vancouver had arguably the best chance at another goal in the half 16 minutes later, but Tarbell did well to smother a shot after a slightly overhit pass from Cristian Techera.

The Whitecaps continued to have the better opportunities after halftime. Kamara out-jumped Tarbell to win a header in the 62nd minute, but his effort lacked pace and was easily guided off the goal line by a San Jose defender.

Three minutes later, Reyna spotted Techera with a perfect throughball, but Tarbell charged and denied Techera from close range. And then in the 77th minute, Davies found Mezquida with a cross, but Mezquida flicked his header just wide of Tarbell's far post.

Mezquida needed only one minute to make amends, driving an effort from distance that caromed off Tarbell's palm on its way into the top left corner.