U.S. national team player Herculez Gomez scored twice to help Mexico's Santos Laguna rout the Seattle Sounders 6-1 on Wednesday night in the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals.
The Sounders won the first leg of the series 2-1 in Seattle, but four second-half goals from Santos Laguna, including Gomez's two, gave the Mexican team a 7-3 overall victory.
Santos Laguna will play the Los Angeles Galaxy-Toronto FC winner in the semifinals.
Gomez has seven goals this season, three in Champions League play.
Santos Laguna took an early 2-0 lead. Ecuador's Christian Suarez dribbling past two defenders and scored with a right-footer from outside the area in the eighth minute, and Mexican international Oribe Peralta turned a defender and scored 2 minutes later. Uruguay's Alvaro Fernandez scored off a header in the 37th to level it at 3-3 on aggregate.
Gomez got his first goal 4 minutes into the second off, finishing off a pass from Daniel Luduena pass, and increased the lead in the 68th by beating a defender to a tap in.
The U.S. international was injured while scoring the goal and left the game.
Suarez added his second in the 77th, and Carlos Ochoa wrapping up the scoring.
No MLS team has defeated a Mexican team over two legs since the continental competition changed its format in 2008.
