CARSON, Calif. — Gabriel Pec scored a goal with two assists, Riqui Puig added a goal and an assist on Saturday night and the LA Galaxy beat the Vancouver Whitecaps 4-2.
Vancouver (13-9-7) defender Ranko Veselinović poked the ball away from the Galaxy’s Dejan Joveljic near the corner of the 6-yard box but Pec ran onto the loose ball and scored on a one-touch shot to make it 1-0 in the 35th minute.
LA (17-7-7) took a 2-0 lead on an own goal by Vancouver’s Sebastian Berhalter in the 50th but Brian White put away a feed from Behalter in the 63rd minute.
Pec slipped behind the defence and ran onto a ball played by Pulg, from well-beyond midfield, at the edge of the area and then tapped a cross to Joseph Paintsil for the finish for point-blank range into a wide open net in the 69th.
Puig scored on a feed from Pec in the third minute of stoppage time to give the Galaxy a 4-1 lead before Sam Adekugbe, a 29-year-old defender in his seventh season with Vancouver, capped the scoring with his first MLS goal about 4 minutes later.
LA is the first team in MLS history to have four players score at least 10 goals in the same season: Joveljic (14), Pec (13), Puig (11) and Paintsil (10).