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The referee wasn’t done blowing the final whistle, and teammates already were rushing across the field to shower Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad with big, sweaty, heartfelt, congratulatory hugs.

And with good reason. Brian Ching may have scored what proved to be the difference in the scoreboard in Sunday’s1-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids. But it was Onstad who, with two monster saves, including one off a penalty kick, won the Dynamo their first match of the season before 12,708 at Robertson Stadium.

“Pat saved the day,” defender Geoff Cameron said.

That he did.

Just ask coach Dominic Kinnear, whose stomach surely turned upon seeing referee Mike Geiger blow his whistle and point to the penalty-kick spot after Cameron caught the leg of Conor Casey for a foul in the Dynamo box in the 83rd minute.

“I thought it was going to be another frustrating afternoon and postgame talk with (the media),” Kinnear said.

Casey, all 6-1, 170 pounds of him, had somehow managed to dribble his way past three Dynamo players before encountering Cameron 7 yards from goal.

It was Casey who asked to take the penalty kick, only to watch Onstad dive right to deny his shot with his left glove.

And Onstad wasn’t done adding to his highlight reel.

Off his save, the ball deflected up and off the crossbar, landing at the feet of a streaking Terry Cooke, whose point-blank shot from just outside the 6-yard box was again rejected in spectacular fashion by Onstad (three saves).

The heroics proved key in ending a four-match winless streak that was beginning to eat at the Dynamo’s confidence. The team improved to 1-2-2 and remained unbeaten at home (1-0-2) as it heads into an off week.

The victory – and the Dynamo’s second consecutive shutout – came against a Rapids team (2-2-1) that entered the match unbeaten in its past three and boasting a red-hot offense.

As welcome as the result was by the Dynamo, it left them with the sense that work remains to be done before the team can claim it is firing on all cylinders.

“It’s a little bit of a weight off our shoulders,” captain Wade Barrett said. “But still, we feel we could’ve made it a little easier for ourselves as the game got into the latter stages.”

A strong start by the Dynamo was rewarded 20 minutes into the match, when Brad Davis sent in a cross from the left side that Ching headed in for his second goal of the season, his 10th in four seasons against the Rapids and the 1-0 lead.

“We jumped on them pretty quick,” said Ching, who stopped the Dynamo’s scoring drought at 254 minutes. “To get that goal was good.”

Especially because after it the Dynamo never regained that dangerous look despite dictating much of the action.

The team would muster just two more clear chances, a close-range blast by Davis that deflected off a Colorado defender and the ensuing left-footed shot by Brian Mullan that went high of the crossbar in the 54th minute.

Kei Kamara, Ching’s partner at striker, took a heavy dose of punishment by the Colorado defense early on and didn’t find a look on goal in the second half.

In fact, the Dynamo were not done stressing after Onstad’s saves, with Barrett making a key stop on a Terry Cooke shot before Cooke sent the rebound just wide of the far post in stoppage time.

“We got a little nervous at the end, and that’s in part because of the way things have been going this year,” Ching said. “That’s something we want to improve upon.”

Visibly pleased with the win, Kinnear nonetheless agreed more work is needed.

“I still think we can be a little more complete with our game,” Kinnear said.

But there was little doubt Onstad’s clutch performance left the Dynamo with a big dose of confidence to complement the three points, something the team is surely looking to build on.

“I hope that when we’re sitting on top of the Western Conference in 20 games, we can look back to that save and say that that was a big turning point in our season,” Barrett said.

bernardo.fallas@chron.com