By Ridge Mahoney, Senior Editor

The Fire is atop the East after tying Columbus in the final minute and beating D.C.; the Crew squanders points with a pair of late-game stumbles; San Jose keeps rolling on the road; and the Metros go OT twice more.

LATE GOALS: Mark Chung turned at the top of the box and blasted in the gamewinner to give the Rapids a 2-1 overtime win over the Crew Saturday.

STAT: The Rapids are 6-1-0 in their last seven games. Damani Ralph struck in much the same manner Wednesday for the tying goal in the Fire's 2-2 tie with Columbus.

STAT: Ralph's 90th-minute goal was his ninth of the season, breaking the rookie mark of eight goals that had been held by Rodrigo Faria, Josh Wolff, and Jeff Cunningham.

John Wolyniec headed home a Clint Mathis shot that had rebounded off the crossbar in the 86th minute to give the Metros a 1-1 tie with the Galaxy.

STAT: The Metros also tied Kansas City, 0-0, on Wednesday. They have played 10 overtime games this year.

SKID MARKS: New England and Columbus, which met in the semifinals last year, are fourth and fifth, respectively, in the Eastern Conference.

The Revs are an incredible 1-5-6 in their last 12 games. The Crew is 0-4-3 in its last seven games.

New England did rally to tie the Quakes 1-1 on a superb first-time shot by Taylor Twellman after Ronnie Ekelund gave San Jose the lead with a powerful free kick.

Columbus, propelled by Jeff Cunningham's two assists, was leading Chicago, 2-1, Wednesday when Ralph scored to tie the game. Against the Rapids, the Crew rallied to tie the game, 1-1, when Edson Buddle chested down a Freddy Garcia flick to lob the equalizer but Columbus collapsed in the first minute of overtime.

DROUGHTS END: Kansas City and Dallas went into their meeting last Saturday mired in goalless droughts and produced a five-goal fiesta won by the Burn, 3-2.

Preki won and converted a penalty kick to open the scoring in the 26th minute, ending a scoreless streak of 338 minutes.

Dallas equalized a few minutes later when Joselito Vaca swooped on a layoff from newcomer Toni Nhleko to drive the ball home and end a club-record 370-minute goalless streak.

The Burn snapped its four-game losing streak with a Brad Davis penalty kick and a goal by Eddie Johnson.

HOT TEAM: Chicago ran its unbeaten streak to five games by beating D.C. United, 3-1, despite falling behind, 1-0, to a Hristo Stoitchkov penalty kick and failing to convert a spot kick of its own.

Ante Razov's penalty was stopped by Nick Rimando but Razov later put away a low cross from DaMarcus Beasley for his 11th goal of the season and 70th in MLS. Only five other players have tallied that many goals in their MLS careers: Jason Kreis, Roy Lassiter, Raul Diaz Arce and Jaime Moreno.

A long-range blast by Jesse Marsch and a Beasley goal finished off D.C. United, which had won its last three games.

ROADIES? San Jose, which staggered to a miserable 2-10-2 record on the road last year, beat the Burn in Southlake, 3-0, and tied the Revs, 1-1, in Gillette Stadium to improve its away record to a league-best 6-1-4.

Landon Donovan scored two goals and assisted on the third to pace San Jose past Dallas. The Burn has a league-worst home record of 3-6-2 at Dragon Stadium.