It was different storylines for the Western Nebraska Community College men's and women's soccer teams on Friday at the Landers Soccer Complex.
The Cougar women were out shot 23-8 in falling to Hutchinson Community College 9-0. The Cougar men, on the other hand, played one of its best contests of the season in registering a 4-0 win over Northeastern Junior College in a Region IX contest.
"Overall, I think this was the best team performance of the year," WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said about the men picking up their first Region IX win of the season. "It might not of been the best game of soccer, but it was the best team effort that we have had all season. We got breaks today and we got some good opportunities. We kind of created our own opportunities in front of the goal and did a good job of finishing."
The Cougars got on the scoreboard first as Luis Tapia took a pass from Jacob Santos and planted it firmly into the back of the net for the 1-0 lead. That was the only score of the contest, even though the Cougars out shot the Plainsmen 11-1 in the first half.
The second half saw WNCC open up the contest with three goals. Kyle Gonzales opened up the half with a goal just 6:40 into the contest after taking a pass from Manolo Garcia-Oronoz. WNCC scored against with 15:37 to play as Baboucarr Sarr scored off another assist from Santos.
The final score came with about 40 minutes to play as Adhemar Lino scored off an assist from Darwin Carranza for the final margin.
"Overall today we played pretty well," Rasnic said. "Obviously there is areas we will continue to work on. But at least we took a step in the right direction."
The Cougar women had a tough time cracking the defense of a strong Hutchinson defense. The Cougar women were outshot 10-3 in the first half and 23-8 overall. The women, however, were still in the contest at intermission, trailing just 3-0.
The Blue Dragons' first half goals came from Madison Joyce just 55 seconds into the contest. The second goal, came just seven minutes into the contest as Pearl Slattery took a header off a corner kick. The last goal came with 15 left in the half as Sydney Armstrong scored her third goal of the season.
Hutchison added six more goals in the second half. The first came nine minutes into the second half as Mel Hetherington scored her 13th goal of the season off Robinson's second assist of the game.
Two minutes later, the Blue Dragons scored again as Slattery scored on a header for a 5-0 lead. Madison Joyce and Robinson each had an unassisted goal for a 7-0 lead.
The final two Hutchinson goals came from Polly New just 16 minutes into the contest and the final goal came 22 minutes into the half on a Shelbi Otte goal off an assist from Slattery.
The Cougar women had their chances to score not one, but two or three goals, but misfired on several opportunities. Just 13 minutes gone in the second half, Kristi Blicharz misfired high on a shot. WNCC's Bridget Stanton had a good shot with 16 minutes to play but missed.
Rasnic said that the women's team has been playing some of the top teams in the nation recently and they have been finding scoring opportunities to a minimal.
"They have been playing some of the top teams in the nation in their last two games and that can be a point of frustration for players when we are in a process of rebuilding with a lot of freshmen," Rasnic said. "We, quite frankly, have been outmatched in the last two contests. The response is we have to get into games that we are competitive in and those we must win. I think we are in the right direction."
Both WNCC teams will be back in action Wednesday when they travel to face Northwest (Wyo.) College in Powell, Wyo. The two squads won't be back home until Aug. 28 when they host Laramie County Community College.
No comments:
Post a Comment