SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras – A pair of early headers from Matias Garrido and Ever Alvarado held up for Honduran club Olimpia, who downed Comunicaciones of Guatemala 2-0 in the first leg of the 2019 Scotiabank Concacaf League quarterfinals on Thursday night at the Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano in San Pedro Sula.
Olimpia enjoyed a dream start, as just 55 seconds into the match it was 1-0 to the hosts when a cross was deflected into the air and spun to a charging Garrido, who headed in past Comunicaciones GK Jose Calderon.
Olimpia kept their foot on the gas pedal and four minutes later in the 5’ they doubled the lead to 2-0 when Alvarado was left alone in the area to smack in a header.
Comunicaciones looked to regroup and cooked up a chance midway through the half, but Olimpia GK Harold Fonseca had other ideas and made a key stop to maintain the two-goal advantage.
From there, Fonseca and the Olimpia defense took over and nailed down the clean sheet victory to put themselves in a good position heading into next week’s second leg.