MOSES LAKE - After the final whistle blew and the two teams left the field, Moses Lake Chiefs soccer broke huddle with a different chant.

"League champs, league champs, league champs," the team shouted.

Moses Lake was able to hold on for a narrow 1-0 victory over Wenatchee Tuesday night at Lions Field, clinching the Columbia Basin Big 9 championship.

"For us to clinch that league championship it's huge," head coach Ric Char said. "It's the first one in my tenure and I think our program's history so that's still huge, but there's still a lot more soccer for us to go and the girls know that."

The win kept the Chiefs' undefeated league record intact at 8-0 and improved their overall record to 9-4.

"We've still got more goals," Char said. "We want to go to state and we want to be district champs. There's a ton more goals that we still have yet to accomplish. This is just a step for us to build on and continue to work hard because there's some good teams coming up that we're playing."

Junior forward Alysha Overland scored the lone goal of the match after junior midfielder McKenna Walker was able to place a ball downfield that Overland caught up with and fired over Wenatchee's goalkeeper.

The goal was Overland's 21st of the season, two shy of tying Moses Lake single-season record.

Since losing to Lewis and Clark on Sept. 28, an improved defense has allowed the Chiefs to run off five wins in a row while only giving up one goal in that span. Char points to the development of sophomore defender Jessica Loera as a key to Moses Lake's stingy defense.

"Jessica Loera was our player of the game tonight and she's just come 180 degrees," he said. "She's just scooping everything up there. We've been working on our defense. It's one of our team goals this year is to increase our defense, strengthen our defense this year and shutouts pay off."

Moses Lake had opportunities to score in the second half, but all were turned back by the Wenatchee keeper.

"That goalkeeper's a first-team all conference goalkeeper and we're just very fortunate," Char said. "She made a ton of huge saves. We had a ton of shots on her and she kept them in the game."

It looked as if Overland would notch her second goal of the evening on a rebound after senior forward Caylah Lunning's shot hit the crossbar, but she was called offsides, negating the goal.

Wenatchee's closest opportunity to tie the match came with about five minutes remaining when a free kick bounced over the head of junior keeper Jeanette Alvarado, but the ball rolled harmlessly to the left of the goal.

The Chiefs close out the regular season with two league matches on the road against Eisenhower Oct. 29 and Davis Oct. 31.

"Davis is a tough team down there in Yakima," Char said. "They always play us tough and they're out for blood because we're always playing really close games against them."