FRESNO, Calif. — Fresno FC went for the match from the opening whistle and put in a dominant performance highlighted by a stunning goal from Jemal Johnson to take a 4-0 victory against Seattle Sounders FC 2 at Chukchansi Park on Saturday night. Fresno was on top of the match in the early stages and in the 19th minute found the back of the net from former Fresno Fuego man Christian Cheney only for the goal to be disallowed by an offside flag. A counterattack caught out S2 seven minutes later, which led to a mistake from Ibrahim Usman, who inadvertently handled the ball, giving the Foxes a penalty kick. The shot was taken by Juan Pablo Caffa who made no mistake, sneaking it under S2 goalkeeper Bryan Meredith to open the scoring. Fresno started the second half brightly and a series of short passes allowed the Foxes to double their lead as Zachary Ellis-Hayden crossed it in for Chaney, this time onside, to head home from point-blank range for his first professional goal. Just two minutes later Fresno was at it again through Johnson who ran at the Seattle defense, which backed off allowing him to hit a rocket of a strike from 35 yards out that left Meredith with no chance. Now with a three-goal lead, the hosts were content to just play out the clock, but when the opportunity to add to their lead they took it with six minutes to go as Johnson capped his incredible night as he followed up on the rebound from his own shot to seal the win.

Scoring

27’ – FRS – Juan Pablo Caffa (Penalty)

52’ – FRS – Christian Chaney (Zach Ellis-Hayden)

54’ – FRS – Jemal Johnson (Juan Pablo Caffa)

84’ – FRS – Jemal Johnson

Three Things That Matter:

1. Scoring first has been key for Fresno FC, which has never lost a game when scoring the opening goal to make Juan Pablo Caffa's penalty kick late in the first half a good omen. The Foxes also got rid of one trend that had been haunting them, this was the first match they won when they held the halftime lead.

2. Seattle was Fresno's opponent when the Foxes claimed their first victory of their inaugural season, so it was fitting FFC would beat S2 again to snap an eight-game winless streak in league play. The win gave the Foxes a sweep of the season series, with the two not playing again in regular season play until 2019.

3. Having not won in four matches, S2 would have hoped that things would change in this match, but yet again Seattle couldn’t come from behind away from home, a big part of why the club is still looking for its first road win.

USLSoccer.com Man of the Match:

Jemal Johnson, Fresno FC — Johnson’s incredible goal was just part of a phenomenal performance from the midfielder, who had an amazing passing accuracy of 96.4 percent to go with his brace.