People in the large audience brought their lawn chairs or stood in the back on Saturday, as the Bay Area Teen Idol contestants performed on a stage set up for the Blackberry Arts Festival. Normally held in the Egyptian Theatre, the contest moved this week to the festival stage and several hundred people came out under sunny skies to hear them perform.-World Photo by Lou Sennick

COOS BAY — With just one more event before the final, things are getting down the wire in the Bay Area Teen Idol contest.

But if the pressure is rising, the contestants aren’t letting it show in their relaxed, confident performances.

In one of the closest decisions between the top two performers, Star Moralez edged Alyssa Birrer for the top score Saturday at the Blackberry Arts Festival in downtown Coos Bay.

The 15-year-olds split the two rounds, with Moralez winning the 1950’s round and Birrer taking the contestant’s choice round. Moralez sang “Dream a Little Dream of Me” and Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning,” while Birrer sang Patsy Cline’s “Walking After Midnight” and “For Good” from “Wicked.”

One of them has finished first each week in the competition, with Moralez getting her third win after Birrer had four.

Moralez, who also won the previous week’s people’s choice award, said it was the first time she felt she deserved the top spot.

“I’m happy because I won fairly, in my mind,” she said. “I’ve won before, but I felt they were giving it to me because it was boring to have the same person first all the time.”

But she said she isn’t concerned about how the contest turns out.

“I love being able to do what I want to do and have people like it,” Moralez said. “I could fail so hard and still be so happy that I was performing.”

Likewise, Birrer downplayed the rivalry.

“I can only do what I can,” she said. “We all go out and do our best and pray that something good happens.”’

As usual, Destyni Fuller placed third with Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World” and Reba McEntire’s “I’m Gonna Take That Mountain.”

A crowd of more than 300 gathered on the Coos Bay Visitors Center parking lot to watch the competition, judged this week by Kim Handsaker, Barbara Bates and Dennis Lindall.

Eliminated this week were Karissa Fults and Alisha Molloy. Judges criticized Molloy’s enunciation and pitch on both Elvis Presley’s “Teddy Bear” and Cher’s “Heart of Stone” but praised her stage presence. For Fults, it’s been the opposite. Her consistently praised tone had been keeping her in the running while judges encouraged her to develop the confidence to expand her stage presence.

There were some technical difficulties as organizers adjusted to being away from the Egyptian Theatre, and the performance began about a half hour after the scheduled 2 p.m. start. The biggest mishap occurred during a group performance of “Splish Splash,” when the entire group forgot the words. The judges were singing along and tried to help, but the performers didn’t really try to recover, opting to laugh it off instead.

Sound problems didn’t affect the competition except during Mariah Rogers’ performance of “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” when she couldn’t hear the music. However, she impressed judges with her ability to maintain pitch despite the difficulty.

Along with the top three, Rogers and Caitlin Mansfield advanced to the semifinal round at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Egyptian Theatre, when the themes will be pop and contestant’s choice.

Both Rogers and Mansfield have been consistently good throughout the competition, but it’s an uphill climb for either of them to reach the final. Because Birrer, Moralez and Fuller have been so dominant, only once has someone outside that group placed in the top three, when Mansfield took third July 24.