The Black and Gold smashed Sporting Kansas City in Aidan Morris’ final home game as a Crew player at Lower.com Field on Saturday night. Cucho Hernandez scored a hat-trick and Christian Ramirez added another as the hosts claimed scored for a 4-0 victory on a warm June evening.

The Black & Gold dominated for the first few minutes of the game. As usual, ball possession and playing out from the back to find spaces were the keys to open the scoring chances. This victory places Columbus Crew in fifth place with 30 points, just 11 behind the leader Inter Miami, and with three games in hand.

Forward Diego Rossi’s shot in the fifth minute from the edge of the box went just over the crossbar as the hosts fired the opening salvo.

However, just two minutes later, the Crew allowed some open spaces along the backline, and a long ball put forward Willy Agada face-to-face with goalkeeper Patrick Schulte.

Luckily for the hosts, the attacker’s shot went slightly wide off Schulte’s left post.

The Crew knocked Kansas City’s door again in the 23rd minute when following a good collective play, forward Cucho Hernandez crossed the ball to the box, but goalkeeper John Pulskamp deflected it and Rossi couldn’t make it to the rebound.

Rossi’s misfortunes continued as his shot in the 27th minute went over the crossbar again.

Midfielder Max Arfsten’s beat his defender and fired off a short cross to Hernandez, who cut inside with his right foot and scored bringing the score to 1-0.

Departing midfielder Aidan Morris had a scoring chance in the latter portion of the first half but saw his shot from outside the box saved by Pulskamp, who deflected the ball to the corner.

The reigning MLS champions extended the lead the following play when midfielder Darlington Nagbe opened the ball to Morris, whose crossed ball was captured by Hernandez for the second goal of the night.

Columbus Crew kicked off the second half with a crossed ball by defender Mo Farsi that found Hernandez, but he let it go for forward Christian Ramirez. However, his shot was blocked to the corner.

Ramirez put Hernandez face to face against Pulskamp with a half-volley pass, but the play was ruled out by offside in the 52nd minute. However, despite the offside position, Hernandez’ shot was blocked.

Following 103 appearances and seven goals with the Crew, Morris was given a standing ovation in the 60th minute when being subbed off by midfielder Sean Zawadzki.

After defender Steven Moreira’s pass, Ramirez went 1v1 and missed the first shot, but caught the rebound by Pulskamp and brought the score to 3-0 in the 65th minute.

Hernandez scored again in the 71st minute with a delightful free-kick shot against Pulskamp’s left post putting the Crew ahead by 4-0.

Hernandez was the most valuable player, but all the lights were at Morris, the 22-year-old homegrown kid who left a mark and is ready for his next challenge in Europe.