Takahiro Sekine hit a brace as Urawa Reds grabbed a 4-1 home win against bottom club Shonan Bellmare, moving up to fourth in the J. League first division on Wednesday.
Sekine struck the 61st-minute winner before adding another four minutes later at Saitama Stadium as Urawa ended a run of three draws to move up to 33 points, six points behind first-place Yokohama F Marinos.
Shinzo Koroki tapped in the 20th-minute opener for Urawa after left-back Ayumu Ohata controlled Ken Iwao's long ball over the Shonan backline and rolled it across the face of the goal to leave the veteran forward with a simple finish.
Yuki Ohashi leveled for Shonan eight minutes into the second half with a close-range header off a Daiki Sugioka cross, but Sekine got the home team back in front with a well-taken individual goal.
After advancing to the box, the versatile man cut inside to get away from his marker and skipped past another Shonan player before emphatically rifling his effort in off the post.
Sekine sealed the match four minutes later on a counter, steering Tomoaki Okubo's cutback into the bottom corner. Substitute forward Jose Kante toe-poked home Reds' fourth in the stoppage time after the Shonan defense failed to clear a low cross.
Shonan has gone 12 games without a win and remain rooted at the foot of the table with 12 points, one point below fellow strugglers Kashiwa Reysol and Yokohama FC, as they look to avoid becoming the one team to be relegated this year.
