Moses Lake routs Sunnyside in McKenna Walker's return

MOSES LAKE - Despite incurring a rash of injuries this season, Moses Lake girls soccer has still strung seven wins in a row and remains atop the Columbia Basin Big Nine.

Tuesday against Sunnyside (1-7, 3-8), the Chiefs got one of their strongest players back.

Senior midfielder and First Team All-Conference midfielder McKenna Walker made her season debut against the Grizzlies. Walker had missed the previous 11 matches due to a left knee injury she suffered during summer basketball.

"It felt super awesome," she said. "I've been cheering on my team and that's been hard my senior year kind of watching everybody play so I think it definitely paid off. It was really good to get out there."

It didn't take long for Walker to make her presence felt as she scored a goal and helped Moses Lake (8-0, 10-1-1) rout Sunnyside, 8-0.

She had a chance for a pair of goals, but a second half shot rattled off the crossbar and was saved by the Sunnyside goalkeeper.

"It was good to kind of break the dam," Walker said. "I was worried that I wasn't going to get one, but I kind of got that out of the way so now I can just play."

Moses Lake had trouble scoring on Sunnyside to start the game. A Stephanie Overland goal within the first 10 minutes was negated due to an offside penalty, but after those minor miscues the goals game in bunches.

Alysha Overland notched two of her four total goals in a three-minute span. Mikaela Loudon's shot from 25 yards out made it 3-0 with 22 minutes left in the first half.

Walker's goal came with 19 minutes to go in the first half and Alysha completed her hat trick with 11 minutes remaining. Nearing the end of the first half, Alysha powered in her fourth goal of the evening to give Moses Lake a commanding 6-0 lead at intermission.

Alysha's four goals brought her season total to 25, tying her regular season record-breaking mark from a year ago.

"I'd like her to get that goal, but she needs to get those goals on really tough teams in tough games and make it legitimate," head coach Ric Char said.

Although Moses Lake expected to overpower Sunnyside, the addition of Walker helped free Alysha for more opportunities and should bode well for future matches against tougher teams.

"Anytime you can get a First Team All-Conference player back it just relieves the pressure off of them marking Alysha and now they have one more person to worry about," Char said. "You saw tonight, her leg makes a big difference in the game."

Stephanie's goal early in the second half put the Chiefs up 7-0. Casci Carpenter knocked in the final goal on a penalty kick after Stephanie was fouled in the box.

Inside its conference Moses Lake has looked dominant. It's in the state tournament where the team has run into trouble.

However, this season the Chiefs have played well against non-league opponents like Shadle Park, Ferris and Emerald Ridge.

Walker knows Moses Lake can't afford to let up if the team wants to score that elusive state tournament win.

"I think we're going to be super dangerous," she said. "We're playing really well. I think the key thing is we just got to keep playing together and keep the intensity up because once we get to state or wherever we get to state the first round it's going to be a lot different game. We're going to be playing against a lot different opponents, a lot tougher opponents."

Kiona-Benton 3, Warden 1

WARDEN - Warden's five-match win streak was snapped Tuesday against Kiona-Benton.

The Cougars dropped their home match 3-1. Tania Dominguez scored the lone goal for Warden off an assist by Jennifer Mendoza.

Warden will look to bounce back Oct. 21 at home against Wahluke.

Other Basin scores

Ephrata 6, Quincy 0