Tom Timmermann | Post-Dispatch

Mykhi Joyner had plenty to choose from when it came to picking his favorite goal on Friday night, but there was no hesitation on his part.

"Definitely the third goal today," he said. "For sure."

Joyner scored four times for St. Louis City2, the first player on the first or second team to have a four-goal game in the club's brief history, as City2 beat Portland Timbers2 6-3 in an MLS Next Pro match at Energizer Park. But the third one, a blast from the just outside the far corner of the box that went over a diving goalkeeper and inside the far post, was the clear standout. The ball traveled about 35 yards in the air on a one-touch on the run.

"I saw (the goalie) cheating on the front post and I just thought to myself, 'I'm going to have a rip and see if I score,' " Joyner said. And he did, on a goal that Joyner said was probably the best one he has scored at any point in his career.

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It was a big night all around for City2: Four goals from Joyner, two goals from Brendan McSorley, a 90-minute performance from Eduard Lowen, who was almost visibly shaking off rust as the game went on as he prepares to return to action with the first team, and 20 minutes off the bench from an also-rehabbing Rasmus Alm.

But the night will always belong to Joyner. He scored his first two goals on penalty kicks, extending his record on those over the past two seasons to a perfect 11 for 11, and his big goal from outside that gave him a hat trick and then a header on a perfectly placed free kick by Lowen into the box for his fourth. Joyner was pushing for a fifth but was subbed out in the 71st minute. His three second-half goals came in a 12-minute span.

"It was just super fun," Joyner said. "Honestly, we all came together as one team. We went down one, came back at halftime and we totally switched it on and it was amazing from there."

"Pretty special," said City2 coach David Critchley. When you score four goals, it's hard to not use a word like a special performance. But for him, we know he's a goalscorer, and that's something he's shown us for a couple of years at this club. But his work rate off the ball, the way he defends now, the way he's been more, I would say selfless in his movements, they're also improving as well. A complete performance by him but to top it off with four goals is always good."

The four goals moved Joyner into a share of the lead for goals in Next Pro with eight, and he's done it in just seven games because of his five callups to the first team. (As a player who's on non-roster status with the first team, he's eligible for six callups.) He thinks the last time he had four goals in a game was maybe when he was 6. Of course, in the case of Joyner, who's only 18, that wasn't all that long ago.

But he's earned respect for his play. When Emil Jaaskelainen was fouled in the penalty area early in the game, Joyner, who takes City2's PKs, deferred to Lowen, who takes the PKs for City SC. But Lowen wanted Joyner to take it.

"I told him, 'Hey, this is all you,' " Joyner said, "and he had all the confidence in me to take it. Couldn't ask for a better teammate and a better human. He's such a good human on the field and off the field, so I want to give a lot of thanks to Edu. He just told me, 'Hey, you can take it.' And he just had a lot of respect for me and I love that as a teammate and a human."

Joyner also benefitted from Critchley changing the team's formation at halftime, when City2 trailed 2-1, to a 3-4-3, bringing Joyner, Jaaskelainen and McSorley closer to the goal.

For Lowen, he looked more and more ready for first team action as the game went on. Ninety minutes in Next Pro isn't as grueling as 90 minutes in MLS, but it will get Lowen ready. His absence has been one of the most sorely missed parts of the team this season.

"I think he got comfortable," Critchley said. "We pushed him up a little bit higher as well so we brought Tyson Pearce in to his position and moved him higher into the next line and just put him into positions where we felt like he could succeed a lot and get on the ball a lot and help us, which he did. I'm super proud that he was able to get 90 minutes tonight."

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