CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- The Western Nebraska Community College men’s and women’s soccer teams bid for a regional championship came to an end Saturday in the Region IX championship games to Laramie County Community College. The LCCC women, ranked No. 6 in the nation, outscored the Cougar women 4-3 in penalty kicks to earn the 1-0 win. The Cougar men never got to an overtime period, falling to the Golden Eagles 1-0 on a last minute goal.
WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said while he hates to lose, you can’t fault the effort of the teams on the field today.
“I thought in the women’s game we obviously didn’t generate enough offense and we have been struggling there this year,” he said. “It was unfortunate to go into penalty kicks and it could have gone any direction, unfortunately it was our that got saved. When a goalkeeper makes a good save, it is hard to come out on top.”
Rasnic said the men’s match was a case where LCCC wore down the Cougar men in the second half.
“Just being down numbers on the men’s side, I think fatigue set in,” he said. “They had a tough match yesterday and they had to come out and play today at that high level. In the second half, we lost possession to the other team and it ended up killing us in the end.
“I hate losing. It is really hard losing games and I think our guys put out the best effort that they could. We just have to look to next year and rebuild a little bit.”
The women’s match was a tight contest throughout, including the sudden-death penalty kicks. LCCC dominated the first half with the help of a 30 mph wind coming from the north. Still, the Cougar defense shut down the No. 6 Golden Eagles.
In the second half, WNCC had the wind to it’s advantage and came close in connecting on goals. Jaime Gastelle missed on a shot off a corner kick at the 32 minute mark. Six minutes later, Ana Jacobo missed on a shot.
Gering’s Keah Brost, though, had the best chance at goal as her cross shot hit the inside of the goal post and rebounded back into play with 17:43 left in regulation.
Laramie County had a couple of scoring opportunities as well in the second half, but Cougar goalkeeper Jessica Taylor turned those threats away.
WNCC had two prime scoring opportunities in the first overtime, one at the three minute mark and another off a corner kick with a minute to play, but they couldn’t connect. Neither team mounded any threat in the second overtime forcing the championship to be decided by penalty kicks.
WNCC’s Jessica Arreguin and Jaime Gastelle connected on the Cougars first two kicks as did the Golden Eagles’ Kelly Parkhurst and Cori Mizel. Brost and LCCC’s Amanda Halter both missed on the team’s third attempt. Brost’s shot, once again, hit the top of the goal and bounced into the field of play.
LCCC took a 3-2 lead after Ana Jacobo missed high and then Julianna Natal scored. Gering’s Taylor Johns tied the sudden death period up at 3-3 as she scored. But, the Golden Eagles’ Emi Yamamoto scored the winning goal for the Golden Eagles.
LCCC finished the contest with 10 shots on goal compared to just four for the Cougars. The Golden Eagles had seven corner kicks to the Cougars three. Taylor made 10 saves in net for WNCC, while LCCC’s Emily Michna had three saves.
WNCC’s Brooke Dudley said they just came up on the short end of the scoreboard.
“We played a really good game today,” the sophomore mid-fielder said. “It was a good last game to have here. Losing in penalty kicks [isn’t fun], but it happens. It just wasn’t in our favor today. Overall, we had a pretty good season. We had a lot of developing to do and it will give a good foundation for next year’s season.”
The Cougar men just came up short once again to the Golden Eagles on the scoreboard. The Cougars didn’t have that many shots on goal, getting out shot 19-4, but they had some prime scoring opportunities.
The Cougars had four scoring opportunities in the first half, including two off corner kicks. The best chance came with 25 minutes left as Casey Zigray just barely missed a chance. Then, with eight minutes left in the half, Tony Rocha had a wide-open attempt and was tripped up as LCCC’s goal keeper was coming out to defend.
In the second half, Zigray came up big on two saves to keep the score at 0-0. The first, with 21 minutes to play, gave LCCC an wide-open shot at goal. But Zigray came sliding into the box to knock the ball away. He later had another key save with about 10 minutes to play.
The Golden Eagles finally broke the ice, scoring with 6:18 to play as Chris Kistenoglu took a pass from Cory Tanner to put LCCC up 1-0 and they held on for the win.
WNCC was outshot 19-4 in the contest and had just two corner kicks to the Golden Eagles’ 11.
Rasnic said while he hates to see the season end, he can focus on rebuilding for next year.
“We have a lot of good stuff to build on the women’s side,” he said. “We have a lot of freshman with some talent. We are just now going to look for next year and try to get stronger.
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