TIJUANA- They squeezed into a small section on the northeastern corner of Estadio Caliente.

They wore the horizontally stripped green and white jerseys as they jumped, sang and cheered for their team.

That would be Santos Laguna, which came in on a warm Sunday afternoon to beat Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles 3-1 in a Week 4 match- up.

The maybe 200 Santos fans packed into that small section could be heard through the almost quiet stadium.

They celebrated as the Xolos were handed their first loss in 12 games and their first with Antonio Mohamed as head coach.

And it took a relatively easy score by Santos forward Christian Suárez in the 65th minute and a right-footed blast by Juan Rodríguez in the 87th minute to start the celebration.

The Rodríguez goal via a free kick from about 30-yards out sealed the win for Santos, which climbed to first place in the Mexican Primera División standings with 10 points.

Club América sits in second with eight points while the Xolos sit tied in third place with four other teams with seven points.

"We weren't fortunate today," said Mohamed, whose team went on a 4-0-7 run since he took over nine games into the Apertura tournament. "We played a tough team. We weren't as aggressive as in other games. The unbeaten streak doesn't matter. What matters is how you finish in April."

Xolos goalkeeper Cirilo Saucedo couldn't keep Rodríguez's shot out despite slapping the ball as he dove to his right.

The play sent the sold out Estadio Caliente into near silence.

The same could be heard when Santos' Suárez sneaked past Xolos defender Richard Ruiz into a wide open area near the mouth of the goal to give Santos a 2-1 lead.

That's where Santos midfielder Jorge Estrada found Suárez with a curving right-footed centered pass from right to left. The pass was on point. All Suárez needed to do is tap the ball in to the right side of the goal for the score with Saucedo guarding the left post.

The play resembled one of those plays from the Apertura tournament in which Tijuana allowed a handful of soft goals.

Santos, which the Xolos beat in 3-1 on the road in the previous season, gave up an easy goal to Tijuana.

The Xolos tied the match in the 56th minute with a goal by José Sand via a penalty kick.

Sand converted the penalty kick, sending the ball to the right of the diving Oswaldo Sánchez, the former Mexican national team starting goalkeeper.

Santos 1, Xolos 1.

Tijuana, a team that had been on the flip side of controversial calls in the Apertura tournament, might have caught a break with the penalty call on Santos' Oribe Peralta.

Replays showed Peralta looking for a ball in the area while Xolos defender Juan Pablo Santiago pushed from behind. As result, Peralta pushed Corona who also went up for the ball in the area, drawing the foul.

"You can't really see what happened from my point of view," said Santos coach Benjamín Galindo. "I was far from the play. I couldn't see it clearly. It was the referee's decision. They have seconds to make the call. They are also human."

But the Xolos will take it.

Tijuana went into halftime trailing Santos, last tournament's runner-up and one of Mexico's top teams.

And it showed against the Xolos.

Santos often dominated ball possession and found open areas to create scoring chances, most of them ending with striker Carlos Quintero's shots being stopped by Xolos goalkeeper Saucedo.

He slapped away three shots by Quintero and another by Daniel Luduena in the first 36 minutes. That was until Quintero squeezed a soft left-footed rolling shot between Saucedo's legs into the net.

Santos 1, Xolos 0.

It was a play that started with a mistake by the Xolos defense. Miguel Almazán left Santos' Peralta open to his left. Peralta then sent a soft pass to his left where he found Quintero before he finished the scoring play.

Saucedo had not allowed a goal since the season opener, a 1-1 draw, against Morelia.

He had shutouts against Monterrey and Chivas de Guadalajara the previous two weeks.

Against Santos, the damage could have been worse had Santiago not kept a ball out of Tijuana's net. He headed a Quintero shot at the foot of the goal line, keeping the score 1-0.

The Xolos had some scoring chances in the first half.

Perhaps their clearest came in the 39th minute when Ruiz sent in a rolling centered pass to the penalty area. But that was it. Sánchez, Santos' goalkeeper, slapped the ball away, ending the threat.

The Xolos created one more dangerous play in the 89th minute when Egidio Arevalo sent a right-footed shot curving towards goal, only to have Sánchez make the diving save.

Sand shares honors

If there is one bright side to the Xolos defeat is Sand. The Xolos striker is tied with two other players as the league's top scorers. Sand, Club América's Christian Bermudez and Toluca's Iván Alonso lead the league with four goals in as many matches played.

ivan.orozco@sandiegored.com