Last week it took one goal. On Friday, it took five, but the message remained the same.

“Everyone had that same mentality of we’re just going to find a way to win,” Switchbacks midfielder Brennan Creek said of Colorado Springs’ win at Lexington SC last week.  

Creek scored one of three goals the Switchbacks earned after the 80th minute of play to secure an improbable 5-4 come-from-behind victory at Loudoun United FC.

Switchbacks forward Khori Bennett broke a seven-match regular-season scoring drought in emphatic fashion with two goals, putting him back at the head of the pack for the USL Championship’s Golden Boot race. 

The second was the decisive fifth goal for Colorado Springs (10-9-4) as, in the seventh minute of second-half stoppage time, he converted his fifth regular-season penalty kick. 

The Switchbacks trailed the hosts 3-2 as late as the 83rd minute, but Creek leveled the contest in the 84th. 

Loudoun entered the match with just three wins on the season, but still in playoff contention thanks to 11 draws. The hosts played with urgency on and, after Creek’s late score, regained the advantage three minutes later off an own goal from defender and captain Matt Mahoney.  

Mahoney also had an own goal in the club’s Aug. 19 match. The Switchbacks lost on that evening but Colorado Springs forward Elvis Amoh, whose signing was just announced, scored an equalizer in the first minute of stoppage time after forward Sadam Masereka set him up with the cross. 

Friday marked Amoh’s return to Colorado Springs. He last played for the Switchbacks in 2022 when the club made its first run to a conference final. He scored 13 goals that season and reopened his account early in his second stint with the Switchbacks. 

Loudoun’s first three scores came by virtue of a hat trick from forward Eddy Davis III. Davis struck in the 38th, 52nd and 60th minutes. 

Bennett opened the match’s scoring with a header off a long cross from defender Jabari De Coteau in the 17th minute, while forward Jonas Fjeldberg scored his second goal in as many games to give the Switchbacks a 2-1 advantage in the 50th. 

Colorado Springs remains on the road as the club travels to Hartford Athletic on Tuesday to play in the Prinx Tires USL Cup semifinal.