Match recap: Santos Laguna 3, FC Juárez 0

A dominant performance from Santos Laguna sees Los Guerreros down FC Juárez 3-0 thanks to goals from Brian Lozano, Emilio Orrantía, and Adrián Lozano. Santos climbs to 2W 0D 0L on the season and sits atop the table while Los Bravos fall to 0W 0D 2L.

From the outset, Santos seemed like the more coherent team. Where Juárez looked tentative on and off the ball, Santos had a plan and stuck to the plan. In the 11th minute, Erick “La Culebra” Castillo broke past the Juárez back line and beat goalkeeper Edmundo Vázquez Mellado, but he was ruled to have been played in from an offside position.

In the 32nd minute Brian Lozano would take a corner kick, and Matheus Doría would get his head onto it but the ball would glance off of the crossbar and out of danger. In the 39th minute, Brian Lozano would fight and win the ball back, make a run downfield, and drop it out wide to Gerardo Arteaga. Arteaga hit a low, hard shot that beat Vázquez Mellado to give Santos the 1-0 lead. The goal was reviewed for over a minute while the referee looked at whether Lozano had gained an unfair advantage, however and the goal was annulled.

In the 52nd, Santos would finally be rewarded and the goal would be allowed to stand. Fernando Gorriarán stole the ball, hit it to Adrián Lozano, who passed it back to Nando who by this time had drifted out wide to the left. Gorriarán then hit it back across the front of goal to Lozano, who did not miss and gave his team the lead.

They would double the lead in the 61st minute when Julio Furch found Emilio Orrantía out in space in the box, and Orrantía hit a shot that beat Vázquez Mellado.

Santos would get another in the 68th minute thanks to a rocket from just outside of the box by Adrián Lozano. The 20 year old bagged his first goal playing in just his second game with the first team.

Santos kept the pressure on, and Juárez was lucky not to concede again. In the end, Santos walked away with all three points on the evening and sit atop the Liga MX standings at the end of Week 2.

Santos will host Correcaminos UAT on Tuesday in the Copa MX opening round before heading to Guadalajara to face sister club Atlas on Friday. Juárez will host Toluca on Sunday in the first Liga MX match in Juárez since 2010.

Santos Laguna: Jonathan Orozco; Gerardo Arteaga, Matheus Doría, Hugo Rodríguez, Emilio Orrantía; Erick Castillo (Bryan Garnica, 80’), Fernando Gorriarán, Ulíses Rívas, Brian Lozano; Julio Furch, Adrián Lozano (Diego Valdés, 76’)

FC Juárez: Edmundo Vázquez Mellado; Víctor Vázquez, Jonathan Lacerda (Elio Castro, 34’), Alberto Acosta, Israel Jiménez; Edy Brambila (Flavio Santos, 48’), Elsinho, Joaquín Noy (Gabriel Hachen, 62’), Mauro Fernández; Dario Lezcano, Ángelo Sagal

Scoring: Santos Laguna - Brian Lozano (51’), Emilio Orrantía (60’), Adrián Lozano (68’); FC Juárez - None

Disciplinary: Santos Laguna - Guillermo Almada (Yellow - 41’); FC Juárez - Edy Brambila (Yellow - 28’), Víctor Vázquez (Yellow - 42’)