Goals in each half from Kosuke Taketomi and Daisuke Suzuki fired Kashiwa Reysol to the top of the J. League second-stage standings with a 2-0 win at home to Matsumoto Yamagata on Thursday night.
A blockbuster from Taketomi opened the scoring late in the first half and Suzuki poached the second with 20 minutes left to give Reysol a boost ahead of their Asian Champions League quarterfinal first-leg meeting with China's Guangzhou Evergrande here on Tuesday.
Kashiwa's third consecutive win saw it improve to 18 points in the second stage, two clear of Kashima Antlers ahead of the rest of the eighth round of games this weekend.