WNCC women fall to Western Wyoming

The Western Nebraska Community College women's soccer team outshot the Western Wyoming Community College women 18-12, but lost a heartbreaking Region IX contest 5-0 as the Cougars failed to find the back of the net.

WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said he hasn't seen a game where they were more unlucky on scoring goals.

"I can't remember a game where we had less luck then we had today," he said. "Really nothing worked in our favor. We constantly peppered the goal the first and second half with shots, and they scored their five goals on counter attacking. We have to start working with each other more, and starting to solve our own problems on the field. We just can't break down in the game the way we did today."

The Cougars, who had countless changes to score, was also whistled for a number of offside calls. A number of those calls would have ended up with the Cougar players going one-on-one with the Mustangs' goalkeeper Katie Engstrom.

"We have to do better at the attack as well as defending," Rasnic said. "The first 15 to 20 minutes of that match we dominated the possession and the shot shooting; we just didn't finish the opportunities. We need to clean that up."

WNCC had a couple of early shots that missed. That led to the Mustangs opening the scoring just five minutes into the contest as Jessica Himelright scored from a pass from Kaitlin Berberich for a quick 1-0 lead.

Western Wyoming went up 2-0 with 20:15 to play in the half when Himelright netted her second goal off an assist from Alyssa Moreno. The Mustangs went up 3-0 at halftime, scoring with 9:29 left in the opening half as Moreno scored from an assist from Stephanie Guerrero.

The Mustangs went up 4-0 just six minutes into the second half as Moreno netted her second goal off an assist from Caitlyn Chesnovar.

After that, WNCC had a number of scoring chances, but each shot either went high or wide. The Cougars also had a number of offside calls in the second half as well stopping their momentum toward a scoring chance.

Western Wyoming finished off the scoring with a minute to play as Himelright netted her third goal of the contest off an assist from Mandi Johnson.

WNCC also had four corner kicks to Western Wyoming's three.

The Cougars will have little time to worry about this loss as they will face No. 14 Iowa Western Community College Monday at the Landers Soccer Complex. First kick is slated for 10 a.m. Iowa Western tied Laramie County Community College 1-1 on Friday. It will be the team's final regular season home match.

"Monday's contests will be tough for both teams, but particularly for the girls since Iowa Western is a ranked team," Rasnic said. "Both games on Monday will be a real challenge. We are going to work as hard as we can, play with Cougar spirit, and hopefully things will work out for the best."

After Monday's match, the Cougars will have a Region IX match against Northwest College in Powell, Wyo., before facing the York College junior varsity on Sunday in North Platte.