Chiefs shut out Ephrata

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Chiefs boys soccer team evened their season record to 1-1 Thursday night with a 6-0 victory over the visiting Ephrata Tigers at Lions Field in Moses Lake.

Moses Lake (1-1, 0-1) got on the scoreboard first 10:50 into the game when junior Devin Petersen found the back of the net for the first goal of the night after fielding a pass from senior Isac Bergeson. Peterson’s goal gave the Chiefs and early 1-0 advantage.

After Thursday night’s win over Ephrata, Moses Lake head coach Bill Bertram said Petersen leads the Chiefs on the field.

“He is a returning first team (All-Big Nine) player,” Bertram said. “He leads our team from goal to goal.”

While Peterson gave the Chiefs the early lead, he couldn’t have done it without a pass from Bergeson.

“Isac is our defensive leader,” Bertram said. “He is a four-year starter for (us).”

Nearly 13 minutes after Peterson put the Chiefs on the scoreboard, freshman Adolfo Cortez scored Moses Lake’s second goal of the game to give the Chiefs a 2-0 lead with 16:40 left in the half.

Moses Lake wasn’t done scoring following Cortez’ goal, just 60 seconds later Cortez passed the ball to Bergeson and the senior found the back of the net for a 3-0 lead.

The Chiefs capped their first-half scoring seven minutes later when Cortez recorded his second assist of the game, this time connecting with Alex Angel for a 4-0 halftime lead.

While the Chiefs have controlled the field for the better part of two games this season, Bertram said it was nice to see his team on the winning end.

“(This) was a lot better than the result (last) Saturday,” he said. “We had a similar style of play today, but we made the most of our scoring chances.”

The Chiefs ultimately scored two additional goals in the second half and senior goalie Mitch Harder and sophomore Armando Hernandez combined for the shut out. Moses Lake’s first goal of the second half came when Angel beat the Ephrata goalie for the second time Thursday night and the final goal came when Harder scored after fielding a pass from Petersen.

Although Moses Lake is 0-1 in Big Nine conference play, Bertram said the win over Ephrata will help his team heading into Saturday’s game with rival Wenatchee.

“We had a good practice yesterday, we played well (against Ephrata) and we will have another good practice (today),” he said. “We are ready for Wenatchee on Saturday.”

While Moses Lake is an inexperienced team, Petersen said the Chiefs are preparing themselves for the long season.

“We are young and we have two freshmen starting,” he said. “We are starting to come together as a team and we are getting to know each other. We are looking forward to a great season.”

The Chiefs return to the field Saturday when they host the Wenatchee Panthers at 1 p.m. at Lions Field.