COMMERCE CITY – Diego Rubio did enough before being sent off to end Colorado Rapids’ winless streak Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

Rubio curled a free kick inside the near post in the 30th minute, leaving Portland goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic helpless. His fifth goal of the season was all the Rapids would need to end a five-game winless streak, but Mark-Anthony Kaye secured three points with a left-footed goal in stoppage time that gave Colorado a 2-0 win over the team that eliminated the Rapids from the playoffs last season.

“I think it’s a real testament to the way we played tonight,” Rapids coach Robin Fraser said of the second goal. “It was a great finish by Mark, great ball by Mikey (Barrios), but I think overall it’s more of a testament to how the team was, because the work that we put in, especially being down a man, nobody quit. Everyone worked.”

Center back Auston Trusty said the bitter ending to the 2021 campaign served as motivation Saturday.

“This is what the team needed,” Trusty said. “We were fighting hard. We were doing our thing. We just didn’t get the results in the past few games. But to get a result at home and get back to our ways just feels amazing.”

The Rapids thought they scored the opener roughly 20 minutes in when Lalas Abubakar headed Bryan Acosta’s corner kick past Ivacic. After the celebration, the referee consulted Video Assistant Referee and determined Jonathan Lewis was in an offside position. Colorado got its first goal from Rubio’s free kick 10 minutes later and took a one-goal lead to half time.

“He works on it pretty consistently, and he hits it pretty well pretty consistently,” Fraser said of Rubio.

“This was such an incredibly well-hit free kick.”

Marvin Loria sent Portland’s first chance of the second half well over the goal. Rubio was sent off minutes later after receiving his second yellow card in the 63rd minute, and Colorado played a man down the rest of the way.

Despite the disadvantage, Jonathan Lewis had a quality opportunity to give Colorado a two-goal lead five minutes later, but Ivacic came up with a key one-on-one save.

Colorado’s keeper came up with one final save in the 83rd minute, allowing the Rapids to pick up their first win since March 12. The Timbers had a few late chances but failed to put them on target.

“Will’s been great,” Trusty said of Yarbrough. “He’s showed up in key moments (with) key saves. That’s the kind of guy he is. That’s also the guy we expect to have behind us.”

Andre Shinyashiki was not available for a selection, likely due to a pending trade that would send the former University of Denver standout to Charlotte, while Jack Price and Danny Wilson were unavailable due to injuries. To accommodate, the Rapids played a four-man back line with three midfielders after typically playing with five in the back and Price and Kaye handling the midfield.

“We haven’t played that formation in a while, so it took us a little while to get going, but once we did, I thought we did a good job creating a number of decent opportunities,” Fraser said. “(We) scored a fantastic goal that was brought back. In the face of whatever was happening out there, we were very resilient. We just kept going.”

The Rapids will look for a second straight win Saturday at San Jose Earthquakes.