Heaps suffers concussion in tie with Crew

Revolution defender Jay Heaps said he had no memory of what happened late in the first half of the Revolution's 2-2 tie with the Crew Thursday night in Columbus, Ohio . Heaps went down in the penalty area just before a Crew free kick was taken, television replays indicating he had been hit in the head by Crew forward Andy Herron's right elbow.

"I was dazed," Heaps said after the game. "I don't remember anything about halftime or the first five minutes of the second half. I don't know what hit me; I'll have to look at the replays."

Heaps remained on the ground near the penalty spot as teammates called for trainer Wayne Penniman and midfielder Shalrie Joseph put a hand in Herron's face. Referee Ricardo Salazar consulted with a linesman but did not issue any cautions as Heaps recovered about two minutes later.

Later it was learned that Heaps had suffered a concussion.

The Revolution, who next visit Dallas April 29, held a 2-1 lead on goals by Andy Dorman (10th minute) and Taylor Twellman (38th) when a long clearance went toward Herron and Revolution defender James Riley. Herron appeared to upend Riley, who was attempting to head the ball, then broke away and was fouled from behind by Heaps in the 42d minute. Salazar cautioned Heaps. Salazar added two minutes of injury time and, just after the half entered its 46th minute, Heaps went down. The Crew continued to attack and coach Sigi Schmid protested when Salazar whistled the end of the half less than a minute after Heaps's recovery.

Herron, a Costa Rican striker, served an eight-game suspension at the start of last season after being involved in a postmatch conflict with a linesman while playing for the Chicago Fire in a 1-0 loss to the Revolution in the 2005 playoffs.

Both Crew goals were aided by deflections Thursday night. The Revolution's Joseph was hit by Ned Grabavoy's shot, the ball wrong-footing goalkeeper Matt Reis in the eighth minute. With Columbus pushing forward in the 86th minute, Riley attempted to clear a low cross, but the ball skipped off his foot directly to Kei Kamara to convert the tying goal.

"We've let ourselves down in our two away games," Reis said. "The goals we have given up have been own goals. I don't know if an opponent has beaten us yet."

The Revolution had the MLS' best goals-against average (1.09) last season and have slightly bettered that pace in losing at Chicago (1-0), defeating Toronto FC (4-0), and tying the Crew. But the Revolution were in position to win after Dorman was set up by Adam Cristman and Twellman slammed in a 35-yard shot following a Heaps win from Ricardo Virtuoso.

"The way I feel, we gave away 2 points," Reis said. "I don't know if we deserved to have the lead; we played pretty ugly. But we got the two goals and their two goals were gifts from us. The first goal was an unfortunate deflection. We have to be better around the box and just clear the ball.

"It was easy last week [against Toronto] and we thought coming here it would be easy. We didn't do enough to possess the ball, to pass it around. They took our wide play away and we should have known to go through the middle."

Frank Dell'Apa can be reached at f_dellapa@globe.com.