If previous evidence wasn’t enough, Saturday night’s 4-1 victory for Reno 1868 FC against Sacramento Republic FC at Papa Murphy’s Park showed us one big thing.

Reno has made its rival’s home its own.

1868 FC has now taken three consecutive road victories in league play in Sacramento since the Donner Pass Derby rivalry began, scoring nine goals in the process. A brace by Corey Hertzog saw the visitors overcome a stunning opening strike by Mitchell Taintor this past Saturday as their finishing was simply more clinical than Republic FC’s. Reno finished with eight shots on goal to Sacramento’s four, even while the hosts held the lead in total shots, as the absence of Republic FC leading scorer Cameron Iwasa to injury stood out.

“Definitely a really good win on the road,” said Reno Head Coach Ian Russell. “Both teams had some really good chances, we just ended up finishing ours. We scored some good goals tonight.”

While that was the case, the fact is that Reno can now show up to Papa Murphy’s Park not hopeful of success, but expectant of it. That will carry forward to Wednesday night when the teams meet again at the same venue in the Second Round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

If there’s any silver lining for Sacramento, it’s that it has had the upper hand over Reno in each of the previous two Open Cup meetings between the clubs.

After Saturday night’s defeat, though, it’s going to take a major response from Republic FC’s players to turn this thing around.

Here’s this week’s 18.

1. Reno pushed into the top four with its victory, and after riding Brian Brown’s scoring to start the season it’s now been Hertzog’s turn to pick up the mantle with a brace in each of his past two games. After a struggle in 2018 with Saint Louis FC, Hertzog seems to have found his range again. If that’s the case, and Brown maintains his solid scoring pace after notching his sixth goal of the season on Saturday, Reno is going to be a fixture at the top of the Western Conference for a while.

2. El Paso Locomotive FC’s Jerome Kiesewetter also notched a two-goal outing on Sunday evening in his side’s rivalry clash with New Mexico United to give him four goals over the past two outings as well. There was a clear bedding-in period for the former United States international in El Paso, but now that Kiesewetter’s teammates are starting to get a feel for his movement it might not be long before he’s approaching the top of the Golden Boot race.

3. As well as El Paso played to remain undefeated in its last four outings, you have to think the side will be disappointed to not have come away with victory against NMU after the visitors rallied twice with goals from unexpected sources to earn a 2-2 draw at Southwest University Park. That said a lot to me about United’s credentials at the top of the West, this side simply finds ways to avoid defeat and keep its points total ticking over.