SJ Earthquakes crush RSL
Chris Wondolowski earned a hat trick and the San Jose Earthquakes widened their lead atop the Western Conference with a 5-0 victory against Real Salt Lake on Saturday.
Wondolowski scored in the 19th, 72nd and 80th minutes to extend his league-leading goal total to 17 on the year.
Alan Gordon tapped home a loose rebound from 3 yards in the 63rd minute and Simon Dawkins scored at short range off a 79th-minute corner kick to complete the scoring for San Jose (12-4-4), which is four points clear of Real Salt Lake (11-7-3) in the standings.
San Jose is also four points ahead of Eastern Conference leader Sporting Kansas City in the Supporters' Shield chase.
San Jose scored four times after Real Salt Lake captain Kyle Beckerman was shown a straight red card in the 58th minute for delivering a retaliatory foul against Earthquakes midfielder Sam Cronin, who had just taken down RSL's Javier Morales with a sweep of his trailing leg.