Suns cast shadow over Moses Lake High School

Suns 1, Chiefs 0

MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake Chiefs rebounded from Tuesday night's loss to Kamiakin but could not top league leading Southridge Thursday night at Lions Field.

The Chiefs fell Tuesday 5-0 to the Braves and played their best game of the season in their loss to Southridge, head coach Ric Char said.

"It's a true test of the character of the girls to come back from 5-0 and come out and lose 1-0 against the top team in our league," he said.

The Suns scored the game's only goal in the seventh minute, but the Chiefs had their opportunities.

With two minutes left in the game, the Chiefs were on the attack.

As Moses Lake worked to cross the ball in front of the Southridge goal, the Suns were penalized for a hand ball just feet outside of the penalty box.

Moses Lake freshman Kelsie Grant lined up to take the shot.

As her scoring attempt sailed over the heads of four Southridge defenders, it ricocheted off the bottom of the cross bar and fell to the ground. Moses Lake charged the lose ball but Southridge recovered and cleared the Chiefs' threat.

Char hoped the Chiefs would score on the opportunity both for his team and for Grant.

"I wish she would have scored the goal," he said. "She deserved it."

Following the game Char said he was proud of his team's effort.

"I don't need to tell them anything," Char said. "They know."

Char said his entire team stepped up for the challenge but was particularly satisfied with Grant, he said.

"There were a lot of good individual efforts," he said. "Kelsie Grant played well. She has been keeping us in a lot of games."

Grant is playing her first season with Moses Lake High School and said her team focused to prepare for Southridge.

"I think we played great," she said. "We worked to trust each other. It feels like we just won. These guys are the number one team. We just wanted to play like our team does. We wanted to be our team."

Moses Lake junior goalie Bailey Ritchie said the loss will help her team through the rest of the season.

"I think it will help our play a lot," she said. "We can play well against anyone. If we just play like we can we will do great."

Moses Lake travels to Davis High School Saturday to take on the Pirates.