Sacramento Republic’s Villyan Bijev played the villain against Colorado Springs Switchbacks for a second time this season in a 1-0 win for the visitors Saturday night at Weidner Field.

Bijev flicked a header past Switchbacks keeper Steward Ceus off a set piece in the 38th minute, the game’s only goal and did further damage to the Switchbacks’ playoff hopes.

Colorado Springs coach Steve Trittschuh liked his team’s intensity before a lightning strike eight minutes in sent the teams back to the locker rooms for roughly an hour as a storm carrying a little bit of hail moved through.

When they returned, whatever early edge the team had seemed to disappear.

“You either get on top of it, or you come out like that,” Trittschuh said of the break.

“They weren’t ready to play for the second part of it.”

The Switchbacks had a great chance to play with a lead in the 33rd minute when Marty Maybin and AJ Ajeakwa produced a give-and-go that put Maybin in on goal, but his shot from inside the penalty area sailed over the goal as he dropped to the pitch in disappointment.

“That’s our season again,” Trittschuh said. “The quality in the final third is just not there.”

The Switchbacks established more possession in Sacramento’s end in the second half and brought in attack-minded substitutes Saeed Robinson, Toby Uzo and Nicholas Amoako — who made his professional debut — but couldn’t find an equalizer.

“I don’t think it was a great game for us,” midfielder Karsten Hanlin said after playing all 90 minutes. “I don’t think we necessarily followed the game plan.”

The result came at a cost, as Fresno jumped the Switchbacks for the final Western Conference playoff spot with its win over Phoenix on Saturday.

Now, the Switchbacks will need to make the most of their next home match Saturday against Tulsa before a consecutive road games in Texas.

“For the last three or four games, we’ve been saying it’s a must win because we have a couple games on some of other teams,” Hanlin said.

“It has been the time where we need to step up and we haven’t. That just means we have to (step up) even more. I don’t think it’s panic mode. I think everyone has confidence in the quality of the team.”