Chiefs soccer races past Panthers

MOSES LAKE - Moses Lake dominated play against Wenatchee at Lions Field last night to earn a decisive 4-1 victory in Big 9 soccer action. The win improves the Chiefs to 2-1 in the league standings, and 5-2 overall.

"The boys had a fire lit under them tonight," coach Bill Bertram said. "We lost our captain Tyler Courtright who went down with a leg injury and had to move some guys around ... put them in different positions and they really came through for us."

The Chiefs jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when Sean Cotton headed the ball into the far post off a free kick from Martin Cortez from 35-yards out three minutes into the contest.

The score held up until the Panthers tied the match 1-1 in the 25th minute of play. An apparent go ahead goal by Cortez was waived off moments later on an indirect kick.

But a strike by Adrian Vazquez off a cross kick from Larry Banegas found the back of the Panther box with three minutes left to put Moses Lake back on top, 2-1 and end the first half scoring.

An offside call 12 minutes into the second half of play negated the tying goal by Wenatchee. The Chiefs pushed the score to 3-1 at the 22:50 mark on a goal by Edgar Maciel. Rehn Reilly scored the final goal of the match for Moses Lake off a corner kick by Cortez with 19 minutes left in the game to make it 4-1 in favor of the Chiefs.

"It was a total team effort out there tonight," Bertram said. "It was nice to play with a lead and give some of our support guys time on the field."

Moses Lake is out of action over spring break, but resumes play April 9 when the Chiefs travel to Eastmont to match up with the Wildcats.

"This is the first time in years we haven't had a game over spring break, so we'll use the time to heal up," Bertram said. "We get back at it against Eastmont who is a very skilled team and always tough. It should be a very competitive match."