The Man of the Match San Jose Earthquakes forward Jeremy Ebobisse celebrates with the crowd after his team’s 5-0 win over Liga MX Club Necaxa at Pay Pal Park on Wednesday AUG 8, 2024. (San Jose Earthquakes)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — It was an August evening to remember at the Triple P.

Jeremy Ebobisse scored two goals in the first half as the San Jose Earthquakes dominated in a 5-0 shutout thrashing of Liga MX’s Club Necaxa in a Leagues Cup Round of 32 match on Friday evening at Pay Pal Park.

San Jose advanced to the Leagues Cup Round of 16 where they will clash with the LAFC who beat Austin FC in its Round of 32 match on Thursday. Club Necaxa go back home to Mexico with its tail between its legs in humiliation fashion with a couple of weeks off before returning to Liga MX action against Juarez on August 24th.

The Earthquakes dominated ‘from start to finish in what was their best match of this season. Necaxa was outplayed by San Jose in every facet of the match and played like they underestimated their opponent that is ranked last in the MLS.

“You probably look at the table and where we’re at in the league, they may have done that,” said ‘Quakes interim head coach Ian Russell if Necaxa had took them lightly going into the match. ” I think Chivas did that. But we know we have a good team here. We know we can compete with anybody. Not to make excuses but we haven’t had a lot of luck this year. We finally got that with Galaxy beating Chivas, and I think things are turning.”

San Jose drew first blood in the fifth minute. Captain Jackson Yueill was on the receiving end of a nice give and go with Cristian Espinoza. Yueill dribbled into the box uncontested and beat Necaxa goalkeeper Unsain Luis with a left footed shot into the lower left corner of the net for his first goal of the tournament.

The Earthquakes doubled its lead thanks to a spectacular individual effort by Hernán López in the 17th minute. Amahl Pellegrino found López just beyond midfield in the Necaxa zone. López dribbled down the middle before changing direction back to the left wing, deked out two Necaxa defenders along the way and then fired a rocket of shot into the lower right corner for his first goal of the tournament.

San Jose kept the pedal to the metal in the 29th minute. Fullback Rodrigues found Pellegrino along the left sideline. Pellegrino sent a cross into the center of the box where Ebobisse beat Luis with a one-timer from just inside the D for his first goal of the contest.

The Earthquakes scored its fourth unanswered goal in the 35th minute off a counterattack. Vitor Costa led a rush up the left wing. Costa sent the ball down Lopez who flicked a one-touch backdoor pass over to an unmarked Ebobisse who buried the ball into the upper left corner of the net for his brace and fourth goal of the tournament.

“It’s been coming. We’ve been unfortunate, but I think the difference tonight was we didn’t score and then sit back and defend. We scored and kept on pressing. Scored again and kept on pressing. We actually kept on ramping it up, and that’s the mentality you have to have. … You have to keep on doing all the little things that make you win a game,” Russell said.

Club Necaxa had a chance to get on the board in the 39th when Diber Cambindo has a point-blank chance to cash in a rebound attempt that leaked out of the hands of Quakes goalkeeper William Yarbrough, but Cambindo chipped the ball high and wide over the net.

Things got chippy just before halftime. Alan Montes slammed into Yarbrough going for a ball up in the air. Benji Kinkanovic and Rodrigues stuck up for their goalkeeper as pushing and shoving ensued inside the box. Montes and Rodrigues were initially given red cards. However, after a review, referee Ismael Melendez downgraded Rodrigues’ red to a yellow card as Necaxa went down a man the rest of the match.

Preston Judd and Nico Tsakiris, who both came on as substitutions in the 65th minute, each had back-to-back chances inside the box to tack on another goal in the 71st minute, but Luis came up big on three of the chances as Judd’s second attempt went wide left.

Necaxa’s three best players in Cambindo, Arce Fernando and Jose Paradela contributed next to nothing for its club, that is currently in 11th place in Liga MX, during the match.

Paul Marie put the icing on the cake in the 89th minute when he intercepted a back pass inside the Necaxa box and chipped a shot past Luis for his first goal of the tournament.

Yarbrough stopped all four shots on target to earn his first clean sheet of the tournament. Luis made fives on 10 shots on goal in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished with three corner kicks. Club Necaxa had two.

Ebobisse scored his third and fourth goals of Leagues Cup in three total games, giving him the current tournament Golden Boot lead.

Pellegrino had his first two career assists and also his first multi-assist game for San Jose.

Yueill scored his first goal of the season in all competitions.

The last time the Quakes scored four goals in any half of an MLS or Leagues Cup match took place vs. Austin FC on Oct. 20, 2021, when they netted four in the second half. The last time they did it in the first half was on Oct. 22, 2011 vs. FC Dallas . Both occurred during the MLS regular season.

With the 5-0 win, the Quakes scored their most goals in a game all season. Their previous high in one match this campaign was three goals, which the team achieved four times across all competitions prior to tonight.

Tonight’s 5-0 result matched the 5-0 win over Bay Cities FC in the 2022 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Second Round as the largest margin in a home victory since PayPal Park opened in 2015.

Yarbrough, who was born and raised in Aguascalientes, Mexico, where Necaxa is located. kept his second clean sheet of the season across all competitions.

UP NEXT: San Jose takes on LAFC in the Round of 16 of the Leagues Cup on Tuesday 8/13 at BMO Stadium. Time TBD.