Denis Bouanga scores and LAFC blanks St. Louis City in victory

Denis Bouanga scored in the first minute of first-half stoppage time and Hugo Lloris wasn’t tested on the way to his league-leading 13th clean sheet of the season as LAFC blanked St. Louis City 1-0 on Wednesday night.

Bouanga used assists from Mateusz Bogusz and Olivier Giroud to find the net for the 19th time this season for LAFC (16-8-7). Bouanga is second only to the 22 goals of D.C. United’s Christian Benteke in the race for the Golden Boot with two matches left in the regular season. Bogusz’s assist was his seventh, while Giroud notched his second in seven career appearances.

Lloris grabbed the shutout lead without having to make a save. He has one more than FC Cincinnati’s Patrick Schulte and the Seattle Sounders’ Stefan Frei.

Benjamin Lundt saved five shots in his second start in goal for St. Louis City (7-12-13) this season.

St. Louis City returns home to play the Houston Dynamo on Saturday. LAFC travels to play Sporting Kansas City on Saturday.