Offensively, D.C. United got off to a flying start on Saturday. Thirteen minutes into the game, Andy Najar took a beauty of a cross from Josh Wolff at the back post and finished past Jon Busch to give D.C. the early lead. Unfortunately, that euphoria lasted all of two minutes — then San Jose’s Steven Lenhart took over.

Lenhart notched his first career MLS hat trick, leading the Earthquakes to a 4-2 romp in front of 14,105 at RFK Stadium. Lenhart was involved in all four San Jose goals, scoring in the 15th, 22nd and 60th minutes and assisting on Simon Dawkins’ tally in the 48th. Blake Brettschneider equalized for United before halftime, but offense wasn’t the problem: United’s defense was nowhere to be found all game.

Even before Najar scored his first goal of the season, San Jose was beginning to slice up the D.C. backline — and San Jose’s breakneck pace only intensified as the game went on, much to the chagrin of Chris Korb, Ethan White, Perry Kitchen and Daniel Woolard, whose relative inexperience (the four starting defenders’ average age: 22) was on display. The most troubling aspect of the United defensive effort: San Jose’s four goals not only came without their star striker, Chris Wondolowski (who was on national team duty with the United States, who lost 2-1 to Panama on Saturday night), but it was also the fourth time this year that United has allowed four goals in a game.

The result brings the Earthquakes’ current unbeaten run to six; United, meanwhile, falls to 4-5-4 on the season. The club travels to take on Real Salt Lake on Saturday.