Brian White’s first-half brace propelled the Vancouver Whitecaps to a 5-0 victory over visiting FC Dallas on Saturday night.
Emmanuel Sabbi and Edier Ocampo also scored first-half goals for the Whitecaps (12-4-4, 40 points), while Bruno Caicedo added a second-half goal for the hosts.
Vancouver now has points in four straight matches and moved back atop the Western Conference standings, two points clear of Houston, which lost to St. Louis City on Saturday.
Whitecaps keeper Yohei Takaoka made one save for his eighth clean sheet of the season.
With the loss, Dallas (9-6-6, 33 points) saw its three-match unbeaten streak end.
The Whitecaps dominated first-half possession, had six shots on target and led 4-0 after the opening 45 minutes at BC Place.
Vancouver opened the scoring in the 11th minute off a Ryan Gauld corner, which came to Sabbi’s feet before he put his right-footed strike from the top of the box into the bottom left corner past a diving Jonathan Sirois for his third goal of the season.
The Whitecaps had a glorious chance to double their lead four minutes later as Ocampo’s strike from the area off a White cross was saved by Sirois.
White and Ocampo connected again in the 23rd minute as the Whitecaps forward tapped in a cross from Ocampo.
The New Jersey native added his second of the half in the 37th minute, putting a left-footed strike on the rebound off Gauld’s corner into the net, extending his team lead up to 12 tallies on the season.
Dallas’ best chance in the first half came in the 41st minute as Logan Farrington hit the left post with a strike.
Ocampo made it 4-0 for the Whitecaps six minutes into first-half stoppage time, heading in an Andres Cubas’ cross up and over Sirois, who finished with three saves.
Vancouver closed the scoring and took a 5-0 lead in the 68th minute as Caicedo put his right-footed strike into the net.
–Field Level Media
