Joao Klauss scored his team-high third goal of the season and St. Louis City SC made MLS expansion history with a 3-0 victory over the visiting San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday night.
Nicolas Giochini and Tomas Ostrak also scored for St. Louis (4-0-0, 12 points), which became the first MLS expansion team in league history to win its first four games.
The only other expansion team to win their first three matches was Seattle Sounders FC in 2009.
Roman Burki had scored in his previous three games against the San Jose side and needed just two saves to keep his first clean sheet of the season.
The Earthquakes (2-2-0, 6 points) remain winless on the road this season after a night in which they ended up short-handed enough.
Attacker Jamiro Monteiro was suspended for a red card in last week’s win over Colorado. Defensive midfielder Carlos Gruejo and defender Rodriguez both suffered injuries.
Gioacchini was not even the target of the game to go 1-0 up in the 34th minute. Left-back John Nelson came forward as part of an attacking move and looked to pick up Klaus’ late run in midfield.
The pass was just wide of the Brazilian striker, but Gioacchini outpaced his defender to the loose ball and pushed it past JT Marcinkowski.
It was 2-0 in first half stoppage time another game that didn’t quite work out as intended. Klaus attempted to connect a pass with forward Eduard Loewen on a run that was deflected by a San Jose defender.
But Klaus himself ran into the penalty area and stabbed in front of Marcinkowski.
San Jose enjoyed their best period of play early in the second half and Cade Cowell had two chances denied by Bourque.
After that, Ostrak put the game out of reach in the 68th minute when his shot from the edge of the penalty area deflected off a San Jose defender with little chance for Marcinkowski.