Simon Becher scored his second and third goals of the season in his first career MLS start to help the host Vancouver Whitecaps romp to a 5-0 victory over 10-man CF Montreal on Saturday night.

The 23-year-old Becher also assisted Brian White’s opening goal in the 38th minute, one week after he provided the equalizer deep into stoppage time of a 1-1 draw at Minnesota United.

Ali Ahmed also scored his first professional goal and Julian Gressel contributed his first of the season to help Vancouver (1-2-3, 6 points) cruise while managing some minutes for their veterans ahead of a CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal against LAFC.

The Whitecaps host the first of the two-game series against LAFC on Wednesday.

Montreal (1-4-0, 3 points) lost and failed to score for the fourth time in as many away games this season, and on this occasion succumbed to a pair of nightmarish early developments.

First, veteran midfielder Samuel Piette had to depart after only 10 minutes due to an apparent leg injury. Then 13 minutes later, Rudy Camacho was sent off for pulling down Becher and denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

It took only 15 minutes from Camacho’s ejection for Vancouver to find the goal that would set its onslaught in motion.

Javain Brown started the move when he won a challenge on the right flank and curled a gorgeous path over a defender and onto the path of Becher running into the penalty area.

Becher crossed the ball left to White, who finished easily past Jonathan Sirois for his first goal since Sept. 10 of last year.

Becher scored his first of the night only five minutes later with his first-touch redirection of Ahmed’s cross, and Gressel pounded home a rebound in first-half stoppage time.

Ahmed got his goal three minutes after the break and Becher scored his second in the 59th when he finished off an opportunity that also gave Brown his second assist of the evening.

–Field Level Media