El Paso Locomotive ran riot against Loudoun United at Southwest University Park, taking a 4-1 victory in the USL Championship group stage on Saturday night. The hosts opened the scoring after just five minutes and never looked back, despite a late consolation from C. Sainte.
R. Rubin was the man, netting three times in the space of 35 minutes. He struck at the fifth minute, extended the lead with a third goal at 30, and then added a penalty at the 40th to put the game beyond doubt. To be fair, the visitors had their moments, but they couldn't convert when it mattered.
Loudoun tried to respond after the break, bringing on N. Cardona, A. Moreno, J. Murphy and A. Mendez all at once in the 71st minute. It was a gamble that failed to produce anything. By then, El Paso were already comfortable and had the deeper squad to see out the game.
There were two yellow cards in total, A. Mendez for the visitors at 65 and A. Ortiz for El Paso at 85. The statistics tell their own story: El Paso registered 10 shots on target compared to just two for the away side, and created four big chances against two.
The result keeps El Paso top of the table with 40 points from 23 games, while Loudoun remain in 10th place with 20 points from 21 matches. And here's the thing — the visitors dropped further behind in the race for the play-offs, having now lost three of their last five.
