Moses Lake secures 5-2 win over Gonzaga Prep

MOSES LAKE - Moses Lake boys soccer walked onto the pitch Saturday with the hope of washing away the memory of two unceremonious losses to open the season.

All-league forward Adrian Vasquez made it evident the Chiefs were focused as the senior beat the Gonzaga Prep keeper just minutes into the match.

The Chiefs never trailed and rolled to a 5-2 win over Gonzaga Prep.

"It's always good to win, but you know we had been playing pretty well up until now we just had a couple miscues," head coach Bill Bertram said. "Yeah, it's good to get one in the win column for sure."

Despite giving up two goals in the first half, one coming with less than two minutes left similar to the match against Lewis and Clark, the Chief offense always had an answer.

Sean Cotton gave Moses Lake a 2-1 lead off a header with 16 minutes remaining in the first half. Cortez's second goal in the first half swelled the Chief lead to 3-1.

Cortez was able to shake free of the Gonzaga Prep defense, make a move on the keeper and bury a shot in the back of the net.

"He put a right side feint on him and got the keeper on the floor and then he knocked one in," Bertram said. "Between Johnny and Adrian (Vasquez), that's a big skill set between those two. There's a lot of moves they put on people. They're fun."

After entering intermission with a 3-2 lead, the second half was all Moses Lake as Cotton scored his second goal of the afternoon on a penalty kick with 28 minutes left in the match

Vasquez was able to ice the match with a goal in the waning moments.

"The best defense is a good offense and we've got a really good offense," Bertram said. We corrected some of our positional errors during the week and during practice. We found a couple more that we need to shore up before we hit league but overall we're pretty happy with the result."

The Chiefs made some changes schematically as Andrew Camren was moved to center to better utilize his ball control, while the speedier Saul Maciel was placed on the wing.

"Andrew's a control guy, complete ball player there in the center," Bertram said. "So we made a switch there and it worked out pretty good."