SAN ANTONIO  – The best defensive team in the USL this season has been San Antonio FC, which entered Wednesday night with 12 shutouts.

Adding another in a much-needed 1-0 victory against Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 at Toyota Field on Wednesday night, the club hoped just its second win in the last nine games will get SAFC's season back on track.

“You just want to make sure you maintain your focus, and one of these times you hope you can hit the back of the net on a more regular basis,” said San Antonio Head Coach Darren Powell. “But we have a phenomenal defensive group and we managed to record a zero again, and earn three points.”

After 268 minutes without a goal, Kris Tyrpak's goal certainly brought relief to the fans but Powell refused to talk about the lack of scoring as generating pressure.

“The good thing tonight is that we created several opportunities, that you would take in a game of soccer, so I don’t think there’s ever pressure that way,” Powell said.

But there is clearly a need to improve. While San Antonio’s conversion rate of 15.7 percent has it eighth in the league, thei team's shot-count sits at just 243, ranking the club in 25th. That shows that while there is improvement needed on the finishing, San Antonio FC needs to create more opportunities, something that happened on Wednesday against Vancouver.

“It’s always good for the ball to go in to the back of the net, it gives you a bit more confidence," said SAFC defender Ryan Roushandel. “Hopefully everyone saw that, we played with the ball a little more, and we enjoyed it more. You score that goal and you get momentum but you know the other team is going to come at you, they’re going to want to get that goal so keeping that momentum and keeping focused on the game is just as important as getting the goal. I think we did overall alright and hopefully we can get a streak going.”

READ MORE: San Antonio Relieves Pressure With Win

San Antonio created far more chances against Vancouver as the side managed 21 shots. Tyrpak, Billy Forbes and Devin Vega also created three scoring chances apiece, providing more encouragement for the fans and Powell.

“We came out very positive at the start of the game, and we were probing to get the second goal and we saw that towards the end of the game,” said Powell. “We had some good opportunities but we didn’t take them and that leaves you a little open at the back, we just have to take our chances when they come our way.”

With late concessions proving an issue as well in recent matches for SAFC, improving off the ball defensively in the final 10 minutes has been a focus for a previously impenetrable defense. While there were still some nervous moments, most notably WFC2 forward Terran Campbell's late chance as he beat the SAFC offside trap only to send his finish wide, Roushandel's addition to the starting line up on Wednesday added some experience to the side, particularly for late-game situations.

“Closing out the game is hard, because you know the other team is going to come at you and try and get the tying goal so we need to stay compact, and stay organized,” said Roushandel. “We’ve got to stay calm in those situations, I think we did a better job of it tonight, they still had a few chances, but we got the job done, got the three points, and hopefully that kind of thing puts us on and get a few more in a row.”

Perhaps the most telling reflection after the match was from San Antonio’s new Jamaican signing Omar Gordon who said “better days are coming.”

San Antonio fans will certainly hope so after a rough August.