Three Jones Goals Give Galaxy Fourth in a Row

Cobi Jones scored three times and Carlos Hermosillo added two goals as Los Angeles defeated New England 5-1 in the Major League Soccer on Saturday.

The victory was the fourth straight for Los Angeles (20-6), runaway leader in the Western Conference.

Trailing just 1-0 at the half, New England (8-18), winner of only four of its last 19 games, fell apart in the final 45 minutes in front of a crowd of 24,143 at Foxboro Stadium.

Jones opened the scoring in the 11th minute with a header from 18 yards off Danny Pena’s pass.

“Against Los Angeles, you can’t play catch up,” New England coach Thomas Rongen said. “You look at the end score of 5-1, but it was really lost in the first half on that one goal.”

Jones scored again in the 79th and 85th minutes, completing his hat trick by tapping the ball into an empty net after he and two teammates broke past goaltender Ian Feuer.

Jones has 16 goals and three hat tricks.

Hermosillo gave the Galaxy a 2-0 lead at 56 minutes when he headed in a cross from Martin Machon. He got his second score at 72 minutes when he broke in alone on Feuer.

“There are no easy games,” Galaxy coach Octavio Zambrano said. “We did the things we try to do and did them well. We knocked the ball around and some things really clicked for us.”

Raul Diaz Arce scored the only goal for New England, his 17th of the year, in the 89th minute.