COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Burn coach Mike Jeffries says by the time his team started playing Wednesday night it was too late.

"If you want a recipe for losing on the road, you come out flat and give away a set piece goal very early in the game," Jeffries said of Dallas' 3-0 loss to the Columbus Crew.

"I am very disappointed in the way we played the first 20 minutes," he said. "After the first goal we stepped up and started playing."

John Wilmar Perez scored a goal and had two assists and 19,008 fans watched the Crew remain unbeaten in their last eight matches.

A corner kick by Perez set up Brian Maisonneuve's header in the 18th minute. In the 75th minute, Perez drew two defenders and then passed to a wide-open Dante Washington who headed it past Matt Jordan for a 2-0 lead. Jeff Cunningham also assisted on the play.

Perez scored his team-high eighth goal of the season off a broken play in the 91st minute.

Cunningham has registered a point in his last eight games for the Crew, who are 9-2-4 overall and 6-0-3 at home since coach Greg Andrulis replaced Tom Fitzgerald.

Tom Presthus made four saves for his fourth shutout of the season.

Dallas' best scoring attempts came in the 53rd and 58th minutes. Presthus made a diving save off Jason Kreis' 30-yard shot and minutes later stretched out to save Ariel Graziani's shot from 15 yards.

"We did a decent job defensively," Andrulis said. "Shutting down Kreis and Graziani is quite and accomplishment."

"Tom was impressive again tonight with tremendous saves when we needed it," he said.

Columbus moved eight points ahead of Dallas (8-10-4) and remained in second place in the MLS Central Division behind Chicago.