Overlands power Moses Lake past Davis
Stephanie, left, and Alysha Overland, right, celebrate Alysha's ssecond goal against Davis in the second half Thursday, Oct. 3, at Lions Field.
Moses Lake forward Alysha Overland, 9, heads the ball past Davis goalkeeper Isela Cruz for a goal in the first half Thursday, Oct. 2, at Lions Field.
MOSES LAKE - Any coach would love to have a player as talented and athletic as Alysha or Stephanie Overland.
Fortunately for head coach Ric Char, he has both.
Thursday against Davis, Alysha scored twice - both off Stephanie assists - and Stephanie scored once to help lead the Chiefs past the Pirates, 4-1.
"We've got the two fastest girls in the league and they're on our team," Char said. "What do you say about that? Extremely fortunate that we get them. We're going to miss them and we're going to have to make sure we take advantage of the senior class."
Stephanie and Alysha describe their bond on the field as a sort of twin telepathy and against Davis it was on full display.
After Jamie Loera opened up the scoring for Moses Lake (5-0, 7-1-1) on a header off a Lizzy McGraw free kick with 18 minutes to go in the first half, it became the Overlands' show.
First, Alysha fired a shot at Davis goalkeeper Isela Cruz that was uncharacteristically wide and bounced off the right post.
No worries. Stephanie gathered the rebound and fired in a chip shot to increase Moses Lake's lead to 2-0 with 11 minutes to go in the first half.
The twins always seem to be in the right place to help each other out.
"It's like reading someone's mind kind of," Stephanie said. "I feel confident, I guess, if I have a bad kick or a bad through ball that she's fast enough to get there or she'll just get there."
Alysha found the back of the net for the seventh straight match with six minutes to go in the first half off an assist by - who else - Stephanie.
Davis (3-3, 5-5) knocked in its lone goal late in the first half on a free kick by Sarah Reiber.
In the second half, Alysha scored her second goal of the match with 35 minutes to go off a pass by Stephanie.
The added attention of being the reigning Columbia Basin Big Nine Player of the Year hasn't done much to slow Alysha's production this season.
"I know they all know me, they all have me figured out so we've kind of started to bring up two forwards sometimes to try and work that out and that's been helping a lot because then it draws the attention more to the other forward so then one of us can slip through," she said. "Just playing controlled and on the ground has helped a lot instead of just trying to go for the through ball every time because the keeper's have started to come out a lot more this year."
After a two week stretch that saw the Chiefs play seven matches, Char is hoping his team can use the next few days to recuperate before this Tuesday's match against Wenatchee.
"The girls will need the weekend off to rest and get healed up," he said. "It was a battle and you could see that they were fatigued from Tuesday's game."
Injured midfielder McKenna Walker began practicing this week and Char expects her to return in a week.
The way Moses Lake has been playing, getting back another All-Conference player is a scary thought.
"That will add that big dynamic for us on the offensive side," Char said. "That will allow us to move players back to where they normally play and get right into the groove where we left off last year."