PORTLAND, Ore. – With three consecutive defeats to start the season, and seven goals conceded, the Portland Timbers 2 could have been considered an outside chance to end Sacramento Republic FC’s undefeated start to the season on Sunday afternoon at Merlo Field.

After a goal by Kharlton Belmar a massive defensive effort by his side, though, Coach Andrew Gregor was happy to claim his first win at the club’s helm, and T2’s first win of the season.

“It takes a little bit of the weight off, but I’d say the most important thing from it is the confidence that it will give the boys moving forward,” said Gregor. “Now they know that they can work during the week and develop and get better and learn. The result, you know, it’s not the greatest game we’ve ever played, but it’s still something that they’ll be able to build on and move forward, especially going into our road trip that is coming up.”

After a scoreless first half, the 2015 USL Rookie of the Year struck soon after the break for his first goal of the new season. Belmar stole possession from Republic FC center back Derek Foran, moved in on goal, and calmly bent home a finish to the right corner as Sacramento conceded for the first time this season.

“We trained really hard all week and put extra emphasis on our mistakes,” Belmar said. “We just wanted to come out here and put together a full performance to get our first win and get off the mark because we have a long and tough road trip coming up ahead.”

From there, T2’s defense had its work cut out to contain a Republic FC attack that included San Jose Earthquakes loanees Tommy Thompson and Adam Jahn, both of whom threatened throughout the second half. Brent Richards cleared off the line from Thompson’s bicycle kick, with the rebound being cleared away by Nick Besler just past the hour-mark to keep T2 ahead.

Then with 15 minutes to go, Wade Hamilton made an outstanding double-save that concluded with Jahn being shown a red card as he clattered into the goalkeeper trying to push home the rebound.

“It was an outstanding effort from the entire team,” said Hamilton. “The ball is getting cleared off the line, keeping their shots down to a minimum. You have to hand it to the boys in front that did a great job and kept us in the game.”

“I thought that even though we were under some pressure, I thought we did a good job,” Gregor added. “We scored the first goal and then maybe got away a little bit from playing because there’s still a lot of time in the game. But, that’s something that we can learn from.”

Portland appeared ready to wrap up victory in the dying minutes, only for Neco Brett to advance too far on a breakaway to put himself offside on a counter-attack that saw his finish find the net. Insurance goal or not, Portland will head to Orange County on Wednesday for the first game of a three-game stint on the road with the confidence that comes with a win.

“It gives us more drive to continue pushing because we know that we can put the work in,” said Gregor. “Now, we can put in a full performance and we know what a win feels like, so we can continue to push forward and put it all together.”