Moses Lake blanks Sunnyside, ends skid

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake head coach Rian Allred finally got those two good halves he’d been searching for.

Stout defense coupled with two timely goals helped Moses Lake upset Sunnyside 2-0.

“The whole season that’s what we’ve been trying to do,” Allred said. “We’ve felt it, just right there. And today they implemented all the things ... We adjusted our warm-up, we did some different things to help start fast.

“We didn’t start as fast as we could have because we could’ve put two or three away right at the beginning. That was our goal.”

Deadlocked during the first 40 minutes, goalie Eddie Reyes got his mitts on a few shots to keep the scoreboard blank, including a diving save in the 26th minute.

Tuesday was Moses Lake’s first shutout of the season, which was a tremendous leap after allowing 11 goals combined against Davis and Wenatchee last week.

The Chiefs also tweaked their formation and returned to a 3-5-2, the formation that showed promise for a half against Eastmont. The change paid dividends as Moses Lake out-possessed Sunnyside for the duration of the game.

“Something that we focused on was being first to the ball,” Saul Maciel said. “Also, we changed our formation that we tried against Eastmont, which was a 3-5-2, which the biggest change in that was making me go into the attacking center midfielder. We tried that against Eastmont and it brought us a lot of opportunities in the attack and we did that in the second half and played really well.

“So we brought it out in this game and we did create a lot more opportunities. It was probably the best offensive game we’ve had all season.”

After a scoreless first half, Maciel took advantage of his new position in the attack and scored from 18 yards out in the 52nd minute.

Maciel drifted back away from the skirmish around Moses Lake’s corner kick. When the ball careened out of the scrum, Maciel gathered, made a quick turn and fired a laser into the top right corner of the net.

Sunnyside began to push the pace in the final 15 minutes, before Tyler Mullan iced the win with a goal in stoppage time.

Juan Sanchez skidded a cross on the ground past the outstretched feet of Erik Vega and Anthony Cortez before the ball connected with Mullan.

“Instead of playing it in the air, it was right on the ground,” Allred said. “Allowed a nice, easy pass into the back of the net. It was a beautiful set up.”

Royal 7, Warden 0

ROYAL CITY — Xavier Machado recorded a hat trick and Royal routed Warden 7-0.

The Knights struck quickly, scoring 30 seconds into the game, before the Cougars righted themselves and threatened for the next 20 minutes.

However, Jose Ponce, Alex Contreras and Michael Rojas each scored in a 10-minute period to pull Royal ahead 4-0 at halftime.

Jose Gonzalez made four saves for Warden. The Knights out-shot the Cougars 16-3.