CURITIBA, Brazil -- A little under a year after the sudden death of star striker Christian Benitez, Ecuador has unearthed a new goal-scoring dynamo. Enner Valencias two calmly-taken goals that secured a 2-1 comeback win over Honduras on Friday took his tournament tally to three and put the team in second spot in a group that is likely to be won by France. Valencia, who plays for Mexican club Pachuca, only consolidated his position in the Ecuador starting lineup after Benitez died from a heart problem last July. "He hasnt even celebrated a year with us, I think hes grown a lot, improved a lot," Ecuadors coach Reinaldo Rueda said of his new star forward. Valencia, who is no relation to his captain Antonio Valencia, hopes the "joy" that the win has generated will help inspire the team in its crucial final Group E match against France, which has tallied eight goals and conceded two in a pair of dominating wins. Ecuador has three competition points, level with Switzerland but ahead on goal difference after the Swiss lost 5-2 to France earlier Friday. Honduras, which has never won a World Cup match, isnt completely out of contention despite its two losses but it faces an uphill battle ahead of its last group game against Switzerland. "We still have that possibility, though it is remote and we will fight for it," Honduras coach Luis Fernando Suarez said. Rueda praised the Honduras team for its tenacity and expressed the hope that his former charges could do Ecuador a favour by beating the Swiss. Rueda steered Honduras at the last World Cup in South Africa. Should Honduras beat Switzerland, Ecuador would only need a draw against France to progress to the knockout rounds of the World Cup for only the second time. The first time Ecuador qualified for the second round was in 2006 and, coincidentally, the team was then was managed by current Honduras coach Suarez. Rueda conceded it was difficult to meet his former team in such a crucial match. "For me, its a mix of emotions, professional and personal," he said. Honduras took the lead in the 31st minute with its first World Cup goal in 32 years when Carlo Costly latched onto a long ball following a misjudgment from Ecuador defender Jorge Guagua. The goal ended a 511-minute drought that stretched back to the 1982 World Cup. Valencia equalized three minutes later, tapping in with his left foot from close range after sloppy Honduran defending failed to stop a cross in from the right. Honduras applied more of the pressure leading up to halftime and nearly took the lead. A fierce free kick in injury time from Victor Bernardez forced a good save from Ecuador goalkeeper Alexander Dominguez. Honduras got the ball in the Ecuador net seconds before the break when a Costly header rebounded off the post into the path of Jerry Bengtson, but it was disallowed -- apparently for a hand ball. The second half was far less frenzied than the opening 45 minutes and Valencias winner came in the 65th minute when he out-jumped the Honduras defence to head home a left-sided free kick from Walter Ayovi. "These are goals in the World Cup, this is something you dream of when you are a young kid and thank God that this dream is becoming a reality," said Valencia. Custom New England Patriots Jerseys . The Marlies surrendered two power-play goals and failed to score on six man-advantage opportunities en route to a 4-1 defeat in American Hockey League action on Saturday. Patriots Jerseys 2019 . That Ginette Reno can sing. https://www.patriotsjerseysale.com/. Western and the second-ranked Laval Rouge et Or (7-0) once again received 20 and 10 first-place votes from the Football Reporters of Canada panel, respectively. Rounding out the Top 10 are the Calgary Dinos (7-0), Queens Gaels (7-1), Guelph Gryphons (7-1), Montreal Carabins (5-2), Bishops Gaiters (5-2), McMaster Marauders (5-3), Manitoba Bisons (4-3) and the Saskatchewan Huskies (4-3) Western crushed York 50-10 last Saturday in its league finale to secure first place in the OUA standings and a bye in the first round of the conference playoffs. New England Patriots Shirts . The South Africa international, who rejoined the club last month on loan from Tottenham, opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a powerful shot into the roof of the net. Cheap Patriots Jerseys . De La Rosa pitched six strong innings to win his sixth consecutive decision, Todd Helton homered and the Colorado Rockies snapped the Los Angeles Dodgers six-game winning streak with a 7-5 victory on Wednesday night.The Whitecaps might have mercifully played their last-ever game against Chivas USA on Saturday. With the lame-duck and weakest link MLS franchise on the block, hopes are high that an ambitious, deep-pocketed owner can come in, rebrand the club and then eventually move it to downtown Los Angeles. While the match-up has produced three four-goal games at BC Place, the games at Stub Hub Center have generally fallen under the file labelled "drudgery." Saturday night was a perfect example. Neither team wanted to lose and both were desperate to win...just not desperate enough. There were moments, particularly in the second half after the Goats introduced Mauro Rosales and Leandro Barrera on the wings, when the game threatened to open up, but it never really did. Clear-cut chances were non-existent. If the Whitecaps do miss the playoffs this season, they wont have to look any further than the three games against Chivas where they collected a paltry two points. For many supporters a six-game unbeaten streak with three-straight clean sheets and a league-lowest four losses from 23 games would be viewed as an achievement by a young side, but thats not how Whitecaps fans viewed their teams fourth 0-0 draw of the season, which was only slightly less disappointing than the scoreless effort at home with Montreal following the World Cup break. The was plenty of social media backlash over squad selection, which I think is a bit unfair. Gershon Koffie was ruled out as early as last Thursday, while playing Pedro Morales would have been a risk given his tight hamstring. Darren Mattocks deserved the chance to extend his goal-scoring exploits, but he, along with Omar Salgado, never showed the guile and conviction when they got in the front third.ddddddddddddnbsp; Sebastian Fernandez and substitutes Erik Hurtado and Kekuta Manneh seemed to struggle with the same issue. Once the ball was at their feet, they always looked of two minds. Hurtado was also caught offside once too often for anyones liking. One obvious bright spot was Russell Tieberts performance. He huffed and he puffed but he also sprayed the ball around and at least forced Chivas to work laterally. But against a team without its two starting centre-backs and a cloud of uncertainty hanging over it...and no support whatsoever, it was another draw that felt more like a loss for Vancouver. Players and coaches shrug off the notion that the Whitecaps are incapable of winning at the Stub Hub Center in Carson, but through 12 games in Southern California, the Whitecaps have amassed a meagre seven points out of 36, all of which have come came against Chivas. Vancouver has never taken even a point off of the Galaxy, their next opponents, in six tries there. What Vancouver wasted by not finding that one critical goal was a chance to close some ground on the teams above them, while distancing themselves from the those in the rear-view mirror. The out-of-town scoreboard was relatively kind over the weekend with Seattle, Colorado and the Galaxy all losing, while Portland managed a only single point at New England. If Chivas USA was in fact the Whitecaps nemesis team, then at least they can take comfort in not having to play them again under that moniker, but Vancouver did little to dispel the belief that they rise to bigger occasions and fall to the lesser ones. Well see if that theme comes to pass this Saturday against the Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane and company. ' ' '