After the last four Crew matches ended with decisive goals in the final minutes of play, Columbus put the flair for the dramatic aside to defeat the New York Red Bulls 3-0 on Saturday at Lower.com Field.

“It’s not easy to play against the New York Red Bulls, after many games in a row,” said Crew coach Wilfried Nancy. “When I was in the locker room, I wanted to step back a bit, just to think about how we did it. The way we played … was a really, really good game with the ball, but also without the ball.”

The Crew started the scoring early, with striker Cucho Hernandez recording the first goal directly in front of Red Bulls goalkeeper Carlos Coronel, off a pass from Yaw Yeboah in the 13th minute. In the second half, Hernandez helped give Columbus its first multiple-goal lead of the season with an assist to Jacen Russell-Rowe that led to a goal at the 56-minute mark.

With Hernandez getting the ball near midfield on the Red Bull’s side, he found Russell-Rowe racing past New York defender Andres Reyes. Hernandez laid out a pass ahead of Russell-Rowe, and after taking control of the ball, the forward sent it into the back of the net to the left of Coronel.

“That goal that he scored tonight was not easy,” Nancy said. “He had the pressure of the center back, a really big center back.”