MIAMI, Florida – David Rugamas scored a brace to pace El Salvador to a 4-0 win over Saint Kitts and Nevis in the first leg of the Second Round of Concacaf World Cup Qualifying for Qatar 2022 on Saturday at Warner Park in Basseterre.
With the four-goal victory, El Salvador are in the driver’s seat to lock a place down in the Final Round of Qualifying heading into Tuesday’s second leg in San Salvador.
The Cuscatlecos could not have asked for a better start, as Rugamas carried the scorching hot form he showed in the First Round when he scored six goals by tallying the first for the visitors in the 3’ after turning in a shot off a short cross for a 1-0 lead.
El Salvador remained on the front foot and soon enough Joshua Perez doubled the lead to 2-0 in the 20’ by latching onto a cross from Joaquin Rivas and finishing with aplomb.
Head Coach Hugo Perez’s men were keen to add more, and Rugamas notched his second of the day by pouncing on a loose ball deep in the area to stretch the lead to 3-0 in the 27’.
The momentum stayed with El Salvador into the second half and after a foul was whistled on the hosts in their own area, Darwin Ceren stepped up and colly converted the penalty to make it a 4-0 advantage in the 64’.
From there, the El Salvador defense took over along with GK Mario Gonzalez, who registered the team’s fourth clean sheet in WCQ.
