The Earthquakes fell behind Saturday night by three first-half goals within eight minutes and could not recover despite three strikes from their star forward tandem, losing to Sporting Kansas City 5-3 at PayPal Park.

The Quakes (3-1-5, 10 points) controlled possession, took more shots and created more chances than Kansas City (2-1-6, 7 points), but their defense broke down in key moments to send them to a fifth loss in seven games.

“You concede three goals in the first 30 minutes, you don’t deserve to win. I give our team a lot of credit. We got it to 3-2 at halftime,” San Jose coach Bruce Arena told reporters after the loss. “I felt we were in position to win the game, but we continued to make some errors that were costly in the second half.”

Goalkeeper Earl Edwards Jr., starting his first match for the Quakes in place of the injured Daniel, deflected a low, driven near the left corner of the 6-yard box by Logan Ndenbe in the 18th minute, but it ended up in the back of the net.

Just three minutes later, Daniel Salloi caught the Quakes on the wrong foot and beat defender Rodrigues on a free kick long ball by K.C. keeper John Pulskamp toward the San Jose 18-yard box. Salloi beat Edwards with a rising left-footed shot after controlling the long pass with a quick touch.

In the 24th minute, Manu García scored on a one-touch shot over a sliding Edwards from the center of the box on a pass from Shapi Suleymanov to make it 3-0 in the blink of an eye.

Josef Martinez got the Quakes on the board in the 30th minute with a right-side finish on an assist from Rodrigues past Pulskamp, deflecting in off a Kansas City defender.

Three minutes before halftime, Chicho Arango scored on a header after a free kick near the right corner was flicked on in a crowded penalty area. The sixth goal of the season from Arango, who arrived in a trade from Salt Lake over the offseason, brought him into a tie for second in MLS.

“It was just a classic way-too-late situation of where the game gets going and the players start to pick themselves up, but it’s already too late,” midfielder Ian Harkes told reporters postgame. “We shouldn’t wait ‘til it’s 3-0 down to kind of have a kick in the butt, in terms of getting our mentality right.”

Salloi again took advantage of a defensive breakdown by San Jose in the 73rd, beating Rodrigues and a disorganized Quakes back line for a square ball from substitute Erik Thommy and putting it past Edwards. Thommy delivered a dagger in the 85th minute off an assist by Salloi.

“Some players played pretty poorly tonight and made some big mistakes. I’ll take the responsibility for that,” Arena said. “Those particular players are not going to step on the field again unless they can get it right and be more consistent in their play. We made some mistakes that I think cost us for sure.”

Martinez added a penalty kick goal after he was taken down by Pulskamp in stoppage time.

San Jose had 63% possession and outshot Sporting 22-8 after beating winning the first matchup of the season 2-1 on the road on March 1.

The Earthquakes visit the Columbus Crew on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.