LOS ANGELES >> Since arriving in Major League Soccer two years ago, French attacker Denis Bouanga has been a black and gold wrecking ball.

The 2023 MLS Golden Boot winner bagged his 19th league goal of the season on Wednesday, pushing LAFC to a 1-0 win over St. Louis City at BMO Stadium.

Bouanga remains three goals behind D.C. United’s Christian Benteke in the race to be the league’s top goal scorer again. A season-leading ninth game-winner marked Bouanga’s 26th goal in all competitions in 2024, and was the second in as many matches following his tremendous effort in Cincinnati over the weekend to secure LAFC a 2-1 victory.

Bouanga’s decisive contribution, which came during five minutes of stoppage time prior to halftime, was yet another example of his explosive qualities.

Darting past a pair of St. Louis defenders, Bouanga hammered his shot into the far corner — but it was the buildup that made the play.

Recovering the ball off a goal kick from St. Louis, seven LAFC players got involved inside their opponent’s half. Backheels by Timothy Tillman and Olivier Giroud kept the action alive, and it was the French striker’s touch that gave Mateusz Bogusz space to find Bouanga on the other side of the field.

For Giroud, who celebrated his 38th birthday on Monday, the goal contribution was his second assist in as many games, as he also helped Bouanga with a touch in their last match.

The clean sheet was the fourth time in four meetings with St. Louis (7-12-13, 34 points) that LAFC earned a clean sheet. The visitors took seven shots, all blocked, giving Hugo Lloris a save-less shutout, his 11th of the season.

LAFC put six of its 20 shots on target, forcing Ben Lundt, starting in place of All-Start goalkeeper Roman Burki, to make five saves.

Retaining its second-place position, LAFC (16-8-7, 55 points) is two points clear of Real Salt Lake and Seattle with a game in hand. The first-place Galaxy also won Wednesday, leaving LAFC a half dozen points out of the Western Conference top seed with three games remaining in the regular season.

Galaxy 3, Rapids 1 >> Gabriel Pec scored early in the second half and had assists on two Riqui Puig goals in a win at Colorado.

With the victory, the Western Conference-leading Galaxy (18-7-7, 66 points) topped 60 points for the third time since 2000.

Connor Ronan scored in the 45th minute to give the Rapids (15-12-5), 59 points a 1-0 lead at halftime, but it was all Galaxy in the second half.

Pec pulled the Galaxy even in the 50th minute on assists from Mark Delgado and Maya Yoshida. Pec picked up an assist when he set up Puig in the 58th minute for the go-ahead score. Pec notched his second helper on Puig’s insurance goal in the first minute of stoppage time.

John McCarthy made two saves for L.A.

— The Associated Press