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TORONTO - Santos Laguna took a major step toward the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Champions League Tuesday night, getting a goal and an assist from Daniel Luduena in the final minutes to beat Toronto 3-1.
Luduena scored the winner in the 90th minute and then set up Candido Ramirez in the second minute of injury time.
The result moved Santos - last season's runner-up -- atop Group 1 with six points, three better than Toronto with two games remaining for each.
However, Santos will play Aguila, which it beat 5-0 on August 21, in El Salvador, and Toronto at home. The Canadian side must play both its remaining games away.
Aguila was pushed to the brink of elimination with zero points and must win both remaining games to have any chance. Only the group winners advance.
Carlos Darwin Quintero gave Santos the lead in the 49th but fellow second-half substitute Quincy Amarikwa equalized in the 68th.
Bermudian keeper Freddy Hall, who was playing in only his third game for Toronto since joining the club in July, made several acrobatic saves to keep the match tied, and Santos' Felipe Baloy put a header off the post in the 89th.
But Luduena, who also scored in the victory over Aguila, finally put Santos ahead. He sprinted around Torsten Frings to the left, traded passes with Oribe Peralta and sprinted toward goal before finishing a rolling right-footed effort across the goal as Hall stretched in vain.
He then fed an unmarked Ramirez on the left, who beat a helpless Hall to the same spot as Luduena.
"The key for us is I used substitutions that helped us win the game," Santos manager Benjamin Galindo said. "It was difficult because the other team was full of youngsters. It doesn't matter if you have young players because young players can help teams win titles. One of the young substitutions we used scored."
The result extended Santos unbeaten streak to three with its second win after it had endured a three-game losing streak.
Toronto extended its winless skid to six matches with a fourth loss.
"It's great to play against a fantastic team and if you don't learn from looking at the Santos players and what they do and how simple it is to play high level football, because its simple," Toronto manager Paul Mariner said. "It's not complicated and that's what I want our young boys to take away from the game, the ease of moving the ball and movement, but that takes years of practice."
Santos had more of the play in the first half, but neither side created many dangerous chances until Quintero, who had three goals in the win over Aguila, gave Santos the lead.
Oribe Peralta made a diving stab to win the ball for teammate Marc Crosas, who chipped along the right side of the box for Quintero. The Colombian striker sprinted and volleyed the ball on the bounce, sending it high into the net inside the near post.
Amarikwa hit the post two minutes later and then equalized when Santos was unable to clear its area. Torsten Frings' free kick was headed upward by Peralta, and goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez tried to leap above the crowd to punch the ball away.
But he knocked it only as far the middle of the area to Amarikwa, who twisted and hit a bouncing shot that bounded inside the left post.
