COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KXRM) — Hadji Barry’s 16th goal of the season held up as the only scoring in Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC’s 1-0 victory over New Mexico United Saturday night.

Jairo Henriquez delivered a long pass to the top-left corner of the box for Barry, who cut inside a reaching defender and curled a shot to the far post in the 38th minute.

“I think the game would have stretched and become end to end if we hadn’t gotten that goal, because we’d both be chasing it,” Switchbacks FC head coach Brendan Burke said. “We both knew what was on the line tonight, which was some separation in that home playoff chase, and we got the separation so we couldn’t be happier.”

Switchbacks FC goalkeeper Jeff Caldwell’s only save came in the 53rd minute, but New Mexico’s most dangerous scoring chance came in stoppage time. After a clearance from United keeper Alex Tambakis, a header found the foot of Romario Williams, whose shot was partially blocked before Caldwell held onto it.

Colorado Springs (15-9-3, 48 PTS) earned its second-straight win after taking down the Tampa Bay Rowdies 1-0 a week ago. It’s the first time in more than two months that Switchbacks FC have won back-to-back contests.

“After the little run we went through with giving up a lot of goals, to get two 1-0 wins back to back, that speaks volumes to just fighting through the struggle, and now we’re back to where we should be,” Colorado Springs defender Matt Mahoney said. “It’s just huge. I mean, they were three points behind us and now we’re separated by six points.

“San Diego lost. San Antonio lost. So it’s a huge three points for morale, these games are going to be 1-0 wins from now on, they’re not going to be 4-2, 4-0 games, so we have to grind it out and we did tonight.”

Switchbacks FC host Phoenix Rising FC Sat., Sept. 3. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.