Kenardo Forbes always looks for a signal from his center backs before he lines up to take corner kicks.

“Joe (Farrell) and Arturo (Ordonez) will tell where they want me to put it, and I try to get it there as accurate as possible,” Forbes said.

Forbes was certainly on point Saturday night, and so were the center backs with their finishing.

Farrell and Ordonez scored on headers off wonderful corners by Forbes in the first half to help the Hounds top New Mexico United, 2-1, at Highmark Stadium.

The win kept the Hounds (17-5-9) atop the USL Championship Eastern Conference standings, clinched at least a top-four finish and a home game in the playoffs for the first time since 2019.

“It’s great to see us convert tonight,” Hounds coach Bob Lilley said. “Joe’s a guy that’s always going to get his goals. He’s had a few chances that have either just missed or were saved by the keeper, so it was nice to see him get an early one. Arturo is just better this year. He scored three games in a row earlier this year and two of them were on headers, but I think today’s was the best one in terms of how high he got and the timing of it. I thought we created some chances in the run of play, but the extra offense on set pieces is good. Kenny had good service on those. It was the difference in the game tonight.”

The Hounds are four points ahead of Charleston for first place and six points ahead of Tampa in third. Tampa has a game in hand, which will end this week when they play two games to the Hounds’ one.

Farrell’s goal came in the 26th minute after the Hounds drew their first corner of the night. Forbes curled in a cross, and Farrell rose out of the pack in the middle of the box to power a header home.

Ten minutes after Farrell’s goal, the Hounds drew another corner. This time Forbes put the cross closer to the goal line, and Ordonez beat his man to head it home.

Farrell nearly connected on a second header off a corner in the 42nd minute, but he hit the crossbar.

Albert Dikwa also nearly had a goal off a corner in the 60th minute, but his shot was cleared just off the line by New Mexico’s defense.

There was a little drama late as a handball was called in the box on Luke Biasi, and Justin Portillo converted a penalty to cut the lead to 2-1.

From there, though, the Hounds tightened up and improved their home record this season to 12-1-3.

“I thought we closed the game really well,” Lilley said. “At halftime we told them we wanted to go for the shutout, but if they score a goal, we need to immediately reset. After that nothing more, and I think we did a good job not to give up the second and have a repeat of Hartford or Miami. I took it as a positive that we had to close out a tight game.”

The Hounds have three games remaining, and the final home game of the regular season is Saturday against FC Tulsa.

The Hounds are in position for home-field advantage for the entire USL Championship playoffs. They are the only team that has made it to the 60-point threshold and have four more points than anyone in the league.

Forbes credited the team chemistry and said it’s the strongest it’s been in his time in Pittsburgh.

“It’s a really good group,” Forbes said. “We like to do things together. On our off days we play golf together or play cards. It’s also a really hungry group. Only Joe Farrell and I have won a championship in this league, so there’s a lot of young guys in this group that want to prove they belong here in USL or even MLS. They’ve pushed us hard in practice every day.”

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