Kennewick strikes early; takes 4-2 win against Chiefs

ML boys' soccer go to Pasco next to try and find elusive first win

Once again, early miscues cost the Chiefs what could have been a winnable contest.

Instead of going mano-a-mano with a rival team, the Moses Lake boys' soccer team let the visiting Kennewick Lions score early on both halves, played from behind all game long, and lost their fifth consecutive match, 4-2 Saturday at Lions Field.

Just three minutes into the game, a misunderstanding between the Chiefs' goalie and one of his defenders, allows Lion winger Mayron Trejo to take away the ball, and with a soft cross, allow Julio Hernandez to score almost at will into an empty net. The grass was barely warm, and the Chiefs were already facing a deficit.

With Joel Quevedo replacing an upset Cody Drummond at goalie, the Chiefs sought to slowly inch closer to the gate defended by the Lions' Octavio Virrueta. Five minutes later, however, the felines struck again. Trejo takes off on the left side, leaving his marker behind, and once again delivers a sharp cross to the center of the box, where Cameron White heads it in for the 2-0 tally.

Down early, the Chiefs maintained their tactical discipline and did not fall into desperation nor were they intimidated by the physical play of Kennewick. With Corbin Earl keeping the ball on the ground and doing a good job of spreading plays to the Chiefs' speedy wingers, the home team started putting incisive plays together and bringing some danger to the Lions' goal.

Betting on the counterattack, the Lions still managed to seep into Chief territory, taking advantage of a left side of the Chiefs' defense that at times looked overpowered by the high-elbows style of play of Kennewick.

The Chiefs looked closer to making things 2-1 than Kennewick did to scoring again, and the crowd knew it, oohing and aahing and offering Moses Lake continuous support under the sweltering heat.

It seemed that it was only a matter of time until the boys in white celebrated a score, yet it still managed to escape them. An unnecessary fancy pass here, a failed bicycle kick there, and Virrueta's nets stayed untouched.

With one minute left in the half, a header by the Chiefs' David Smedley from the right side of the box, goes barely out of bounds, smooching Virrueta's right post, and the home team hits the showers thinking that they have a pretty good shot at taming the Lions after the break is over.

That feeling lasted about two plays into the second stanza. With less than a minute into it, Hernandez delivers a cross shot from the right side of the box, and Wilbur Velasco glides it in to the right of Quevedo. It's 3-0 and it looks hopeless.

Except, it isn't. The Chiefs, having arranged to dig themselves into a hole at the start of both halves, came out more decided than ever to make a game of it, and Virrueta had plenty of work at hand, with shots peeling the crossbar or being deflected into corner kicks.

Nearing the midpoint of the final half, the Chiefs' Shawn Goicochea brings the ball from the right side, crosses on to Smedley who delivers a right-legged rocket from 12 yards out that requires Virrueta to take flight in order to avoid the first Chief tally.

Two plays later, with 25 minutes left in the game, a flip-throw-in from the left by Earl finds Smedley at around 15 yards out, from where he heads it towards the upper left corner of Virrueta's goal. The Lions' keeper takes off again in a sterile effort, as the ball find the angle, destroys a couple of spider webs, and puts the Chiefs on the board.

The Lions, hurt in their pride, reacted furiously towards the Chiefs' goal and after a couple of close calls, where Quevedo masterfully closed off the angles for the Kennewick shooters, the third time he is not so lucky, and with 21 minutes left, the Lions' Hernandez collects his second score of the game and the fourth for his team.

Down by three for the second time in the game, the Chiefs still felt there was time for more, and refused to watch the clock tick down. Putting ball against grass and putting guts into every pass, they managed to score again, with 18 minutes left. A penetrating combo of Goicochea to Smedley to Robbie Waites, leaves the latter at prime position inside the box to slink the ball past Virrueta and make it 4-2.

Tried as they might, the Chiefs could not get any closer than that, and by the time of the final whistle, they were left with the impression that their slow starts gave this one away to a team that showed it could score on them, but it never showed it could dominate them.

"We have a lot of talent but we just don't put it together for the full 80 minutes," Moses Lake head coach Jason Green said. "It's that way every game, and we haven't figured it out." Chief midfielder Corbin Earl agreed, saying his team "starts to pick it up once we get behind. We get scored on and then we play from behind, but sometimes it's too late."

On the positive side, Earl said the Chiefs were beginning to play an effective, physical brand of soccer. Green praised the way the team was taking advantage of dead-ball opportunities, scoring from corner kicks and throw-ins.

"We are still aggressive," he said. "We worked on it and it has carried through."

The next game for the 0-5 Chiefs is against Pasco in Pasco.

Mayron Trejo 23

Julio Hernandez 21

Wilbur Velasco26

Cameron White 16

Octavio Virrueta