Aidan Morris scored the second and third goals of his pro career one week after recording his first to help the Columbus Crew romp to a 4-0 victory over visiting Real Salt Lake on Saturday.
Lucas Zelarayan added his third goal when he converted from the penalty spot and contributed his first assist of the season Morris’ opener.
Yaw Yeboah added his first goal in second-half stoppage time as Columbus (3-2-1, 10 points) won comfortably for the second consecutive weekend.
In its previous match last Saturday, the Crew beat Atlanta 6-1 in a game in which Morris was one of four Columbus players to score their first career MLS goals.
Patrick Schulte needed only two saves to keep a second clean sheet for the Crew in place of Eloy Room, who was left out of the matchday roster after playing for Curacao during the international match window last weekend.
Gavin Beavers made five stops for Real Salt Lake (1-4-0, 3 points), which have now lost four in a row following a season-opening victory over Vancouver. RSL have been outscored 12-1 during that stretch and have now played 248 minutes since scoring their last goal.
The 21-year-old Morris put Columbus ahead after only 14 minutes when he finished off a stylish sequence.
Right-center back Steven Moreira spotted Zelarayan running into the right side of the penalty area and found him with a pass. Then Zelarayan made a clever first-touch, back-heel feed behind him into the path of Morris, who hammered a low finish between Beavers and the far left post.
Salt Lake had their best chance of the game when it was still 1-0, with Ilijah Paul getting free in the 37th minute only to be denied by Schulte’s excellent diving save to his left.
Three minutes later, Zelarayan earned the opportunity to double the lead, taking a pass inside the area again and absorbing a foul from Pablo Ruiz. While the contact was light, there was no clear and obvious error to incite a video review, and Zelarayan finished the resulting penalty calmly into the bottom right corner.
Morris put the game out of the reach in the 53rd minute when he was first to the rebound of Darlington Nagbe’s shot that Beavers failed to push away from danger.
–Field Level Media
