Moses Lake soccer races past Sunnyside
The Chiefs Hunter Mauseth is denied a first half goal by the Grizzlies keeper. Below, Krystal Fick heads a pass to teammate Alysha Overland during first half action.
MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake High School girls put on a fine display of soccer last night as the Chiefs blew out the Sunnyside Grizzles 8-1 at Lions Field.
"I thought the girls played really well tonight," coach Ricardo Char said. "Caylah (Lunning) and Alysha (Overland) both had hat-tricks and McKenna Walker and Stephanie Overland had a goal each."
The match was never in doubt as Moses Lake got two first half goals each from Lunning and Alysha Overland to take a 4-1 lead into the break at halftime.
Lunning scored first at the 36 minute-mark to give the Chiefs an early 1-0 lead. Overland added another goal four minutes later to increase the score to 2-0.
Lunning's second goal of the half (header) put Moses Lake up 3-0 at the 29 minute-mark.
The Chiefs looked to be in mid-season form as they controlled the temp of the game with crisp accurate passing and good spacing that kept he Grizzlies on their heels for the majority of the first half.
Sunnyside's only threat came with eight minutes left before intermission when the team scored its only goal off a corner kick that got by a diving Jeanette Alvarado (Chiefs keeper) in the box.
But Overland answered back with her second score with two minutes on the clock to give Moses Lake a three goal lead at half time.
"We talked to the girls at the half and told them we still needed to sharpen things up a bit and come out more effective in the second half, " Char said. "And we were able to do just that and put the game away."
The second half of play didn't get any better from the Grizzlies standpoint as the Chiefs hung another four goals on the board while holding Sunnyside scoreless.
"We hadn't played up to our expectations in the first two games, but were able to win both of them," Char said. "But we really came out and played up to our potential tonight."
Moses Lake blanked Post Falls 2-0 in the season opener Sept. 1, then got past Walla Walla 2-1 Sept. 4. Both were nonleague road games.
The win against he Grizzlies improves the Chiefs record to 3-0 (1-0 in league play). Moses Lake is back on the pitch Tuesday when the Chiefs travel to Eastmont to take on the Wildcats.
"Eastmont is one of the better teams in the league," Char said. "They beat Wenatchee 4-1 Wednesday, so we've got a lot of work to do if we expect to compete against them."