WNCC fall to Northwest in a shootout 7-5

                 Jose Netto’s record-setting, four goal performance wasn’t enough for the Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer team to capture a win Wednesday afternoon at the Landers Soccer Complex.

                Northwest (Wyo.) College scored three goals in the final 10 minutes to escape with a 7-5 win over the Cougars in a Region IX conference match.

                Netto’s four goals broke the school record for most goals in a match. The previous best was three that was previously held by Sergio Dominguez in 2003 and Marcel Sales last season.

                WNCC men’s coach Todd Rasnic said that Netto had a fabulous day.

“Netto was on fire today,” he said. “He did a great job but unfortunately the final result was still a loss. We have to figure out way when we score this many goals in a game to finish it off and win it. That is the bottom line.”

Nettom who know has six goals on he season, was unstoppable early on. Netto hit for the hat trick in the first half with three goals, scoring the first 26 minutes into the contest off a direct kick. The sophomore from Brazil scored his second goal three minutes later and then netted his third goal two minutes later on a penalty kick.

                Netto broke the record just five minutes into the second half as he took a pass from Edwin Sanchez and rifled a fastball from about 25 feet out into the back of the net. That record-setting goal gave the Cougars their first lead of the contest at 5-4.

                Up until that point, Northwest’s Leonardo Mederios was scoring at will alongside Netto. The Trapper sophomore scored the first Northwest’s first three goals. The first goal came on a penalty kick at the 8:25 mark. Mederios then put the Trappers up 2-0 with a coal at the 22-minute mark. That is when Netto scored his first goal, but it didn’t last long as Mederios scored his hat trick by taking a pass from Dean Johnson and putting the header into the back of the net.

                WNCC tied the contest at 3-3 on Netto’s penalty kick with 30:58 to go in the first half, but it was shortlived as Johnson scored the go-ahead goal with 32:50 to play after taking a pass from Adrien Elicerio.

                The Cougars tied the contest heading into halftime as Baboucarr Sarr delivered a pass to Sanchez, who firmly planted it into the back of the net.

                WNCC controlled most of the second half and were in prime position to register the win after Netto put in the go-ahead goal five minutes into the contest. Northwest, however, had other ideas scoring three goals in the final 10 minutes. The Trappers tied the contest as WNCC accidently kicked the ball into their own net with 34:50 to play. Less than a minute later, Matheus Santos took a pass from Alan Da Costa and banked a shot in off the cross bar for the 6-5 lead.

                WNCC still had live in them to get the tying goal, but Cesar Canales scored an insurance goal from a pass from Legofi Crawford for the 7-5 win.

                Both teams competed evenly on the field. Northwest held a 12-10 shot advantage at halftime and finished the contest topping the Cougars 21-16 in shots. Northwest also had four corner kicks compared to just two for WNCC.

                Rasnic said that he warned the team that this team can score. Last season the teams combined for 10 goals.

                “We broke down in the second half from our game plan and we started to do things that were out of character from our offense,” Rasnic said. “We stopped doing the hard work to develop an attacking play and when you do that, you start making bad decisions. Once we started making bad decisions in the final third [of the field], it resulted in not much threat to them.

“We let them hang around in the game and they possessed the ball a little bit. One of their late goals was off my own defender and another goal came off the crossbar. That is a problem, but we will get better, but it understanding that if you continue giving up the amount of goals that we are a giving up, sooner or later you don’t get to work yourself out of a hole.”

WNCC, 2-1-1, will next be in action this weekend when they face Region IX opponent Otero Junior College at La Junta, Colo., on Saturday followed by a contest with Lamar Community College on Sunday.

Region IX Standings

Team                                 Region IX                 Overall

LCCC                                  1-0-0                          3-0-1

Otero JC                           1-0-1                          2-1-1

W. Wyoming                  2-1-0                          2-1-0

NW Wyoming                1-1-1                          2-1-1

W. Nebraska                  0-1-0                          2-1-1

NE Colorado                   0-2-0                          1-4-0

Wednesday’s Scores

NW Wyoming 7, WNCC 5

W. Wyoming 3, NE Colorado 1