By CAITLIN MURRAY

PORTLAND, Ore. — After a seven-week long wait, Portland Timbers fans were reminded what it feels like to win at home.

An early goal from Maximiliano Urruti lifted the Timbers past D.C. United, 1-0, at Providence Park on Wednesday to end a two-game losing run and give the Timbers their first home win since April 4.

“You can lose energy when you’re not getting results, and when you do that, you’re dead in the water,” Timbers coach Caleb Porter said. “That’s not going to happen here. You’ll always see a good response out of these guys and our goal was to come in aggressive.”

In the fifth minute, Gaston Fernandez sent a skidding cross into the box for Urruti, who ran onto it for the one-time tap in. It was the first time this season the Timbers have scored an early goal and continues their streak of not losing when leading at the half.

D.C. United came into Wednesday’s match without a batch of starters. Fabian Espindola, Luis Silva, Michael Farfan and Nick DeLeon were all out with quad and hamstring injuries. Chris Rolfe stayed behind to rest for Saturday when D.C. hosts Philadelphia and it appears Chris Pontius did the same.

Bill Hamid kept D.C. United in the match with a splendid performance in net, including back-to-back saves starting at the 70th minute mark. Darlington Nagbe found in the box Rodney Wallace, whose low driving shot forced a diving stop from Hamid. A minute later, Will Johnson cross found Dairon Aspirilla, who chested it down and fired, forcing another lunging block out of Hamid.

“The second half, we had chances and Hamid kept them in the game,” Porter said. “We should’ve had a couple more. I don’t think it was bad finishing. We had a couple that were good strikes but, world class saves.”

Urriti nearly doubled his tally in the 36th minute with a falling blast from the top of the box that goalkeeper Hamid did well to tip over the bar.

The match marked the return of Johnson, who broke his leg last fall and missed the first 12 games of the season. Johnson was subbed out in the 84th minute due to some leg soreness, Porter said.

“This was a big game for us. I tried to downplay it as much as I could that it was about me and my leg,” Johnson said of how he felt about returning. “I didn’t really get that feeling until I came off — at the end, that ovation really got me. It was special and something I’ll remember for a long time.”

With the result, the Timbers pull even with the Houston Dynamo on points and pull one point within a tie for playoff position. Up next, the Timbers travel to Colorado on Saturday while D.C. hosts Philadelphia.

Here are the match highlights: