MOSES LAKE - Jonny Cortez had two goals and Luis Jimenez and A.J. Montes added one each as the Chiefs beat Walla Walla 4-1 at Lions Field Tuesday.

The win moves Moses Lake into sole possession of first place in the Columbia Basin Big Nine (CBBN) conference with a  record of 4-1. The Chiefs are 6-2 overall.

"It feels nice to lead the Big Nine for once," coach Bill Bertram said. "Even though we still have half a season left, we're playing hard nosed, no-quit soccer."

Cortez got Moses Lake on the board with his first goal at the 22nd minute of action off an assist by Adolfo Cortez. It was the only score of the first half of play.

The Blue Devils evened the match 1-1 at the 51 minute-mark. The Chiefs answered back with a goal by Jimenez (Andrew Camren) at the 65th minute of action to regain the lead 2-1.

Montes pushed the score to 3-1 with a score four minutes later off an assist by Jonny Cortez.  Cortez got his second goal of the match off Camren's second assist of the game during injury time to round out the scoring for Moses Lake, 4-1.

"Walla Walla had no answer to the Cortez boys today," Bertram said. "Adolfo controlled the midfield, Martin led our defense, and Jonny frustrated their defense up top all game."

Bertram said the Chiefs non-starters also turned in outstanding efforts  in the win.

"Luis Jimenez made his minutes count with a strong header for the game-winner," he said. "We were a little slim on the bench today and had to platoon our four subs in carefully.  Injuries, suspensions and traveling commitments required us to bring up two new players to varsity.  Hats off to Luis Contreras and Alex Reed for giving us some hard fought midfield minutes today."

The Chiefs keeper Luis Villa a solid game in-goal with five saves, and stopped a number of threats late in the match.

 Moses Lake is back in action Saturday when the Chiefs host Davis at Lions Field at 1 p.m.