The Cougar men also played well, but had different results as they fell to the Mustangs 2-1.
For the women, the win was important after the Mustangs stung the banged up Cougar team earlier this season at home 5-0.The two will now face each other in the first round of the Region IX playoffs on Friday at 3:30 p.m. at the Landers Soccer Complex.
"The girls completely dominated Western Wyoming. Virtually the ball was never in our end," soccer coach Todd Rasnic said. "They got fairly lucky on their first goal because we completely dominated them."
One of the big reasons for the turnaround for the women's squad from the first time they faced Western Wyoming is because the women had all 17 players available.
"We have all 17 girls back and it makes a huge difference knowing that you have players to run in and out of the game," Rasnic said. "The girls were definitely back on. Daisy [Rosales] helped a lot, Kristy [Blicharz] got her game back on track, and Cristina [Soto] was there and did an outstanding job in playing a centerback."
It took the women a half to get warmed up as the Mustangs scored 16 minutes into the match for a 1-0 halftime lead. The second half was all Cougars as they dominated play. Blicharz got back on her scoring as she scored in the 32nd minute of the second half. Ashley Gleason and Jordan Lutkin recorded the assists on the tying goal.
The match stayed that way until the first overtime period when Blicharz planted the ball firmly in frame with a 1 minute, 30 seconds left in the period for the win. Rosales and Lutkin provided the assists on the shot.
It was also Blicharz' first multiple goal game since the opening weekend when she recorded back-to-back hat tricks. After that Blicharz was out for nearly five weeks with a leg injury.
The Cougar women out shot the Mustangs 13-6 as WNCC goal keeper Jessica Taylor recorded five saves in net.
The men also dominated the Mustangs, but were just a little unlucky on the field.
"The guys played extremely well. They just beat us on two counter attacks," Rasnic said. "As for building our final third of play, we had a lot better scoring chances, and we had much better organization. We lost through the midfield a little bit, but that was because we had some guys out."
Western Wyoming wasted little time in scoring, netting the first goal just 2:15 into the match. The score stayed that way until the second half when Wetern Wyoming scored just 12 minutes into the period to go up 2-0.
WNCC finally found the back of the net in the 65th minute as Marcel Sales scored off an assist from Harry Buerno. WNCC did score three other times, but the goals were disallowed for various reasons.
WNCC outshot the Mustangs 11-9 in the contest.
Both teams will be back in action Sunday when they face North Idaho College in Rock Springs, Wyo. It will be the team's final regular season matches before competing in the Region IX playoffs beginning Friday at the Landers Soccer Complex.
The Cougar men (5-10) enter the regional playoffs as the No. 4 seed and will face No. 1 seed Otero Junior College at 8 a.m. on Friday. The Cougar women (8-8-1) earned the No. 2 seed and will battle Western Wyoming at 3:30 p.m. The winners advance to Saturday's championship matches.
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