WNCC soccer teams fall to LCCC

 

               CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- The Western Nebraska Community College men's and women's soccer team had a rough go in their matches with Laramie County Community College in cold, wet and foggy weather in Cheyenne, Wyo., Wednesday afternoon.

               The Cougar men hung with the Golden Eagles but fell 4-1 in Region IX conference action. The Cougar women played tough for the first half against the No. 9 team in the nation before falling 8-0.

               The men had a couple unfortunate goals, including two penalty kicks, one of each in the first and second half.

               "Quite honestly, we played a good game. We just didn't execute inside our opponents' half of the field and finish some balls," WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said about his men's team performance. "The surface was also wet which doesn't bode well with our style of play. We play a lot of balls up and over the top and with this wet surface, they were getting to the keeper right away."

               The Cougar men got down early as the Golden Eagles scored with a little over 14 minutes left in the half on a goal by Spencer Gray. Three minutes later, LCCC struck again on a shot by Landon Horst for a 2-0 lead. LCCC went up 3-0 at halftime after Dino Soto scored on a penalty kick with 4:05 left.

               WNCC came out fired up in the second half, getting a number of scoring opportunities and finally finding the net with 37 minutes left to play as Jose Netto connected on his ninth goal of the season off an assist from Erwin Sanchez.

               WNCC couldn't cut the deficit any further as Soto connected on another penalty kick with 2:42 left for the final margins.

               The Cougars outshot Laramie County 10-9. Jesus Alvarado started in goal for WNCC and had two saves and three goals against him, while Joey Rasnic played the second half, giving up one goal and making six saves.

               Coach Rasnic said the next time they face LCCC will be Sept. 28 at their place and he is looking for a different team to come out on the field.

               "We certainly have the players to match up man to man and to be in the next contest," he said. "it was a little disheartening. I thought we fought hard. We just have to rebound back. We can blame games on a lot of stuff; two penalty kicks didn't help us. We just need to finish our opportunities and that is the key; we have to start, when we get in good space to score, to finish the shot to score."

               The women competed well against the Golden Eagles for the opening 45 minutes. LCCC struck early to grab a 2-0 lead as Vanessa Alexander scored just six minutes into the contest. The Golden Eagles went up 2-0 with 33 minutes left in the half on a goal by Shino Kunisawa. After that, the Cougar defense shut down the LCCC scoring attack to go into intermission trailing by two goals.

               The second half saw the Golden Eagles scoring four goals in a 14 minute period to open up the contest. Kunisawa netted the hat trick by scoring the first two goals of the half, the first just 30 seconds into the half and the second one with 33 minutes to play. Two minutes later, Monica Lubin scored back-to-back goals to put LCCC up 6-0.

               The Golden Eagles went up 7-0 with 26 minutes left in the match on a goal by Zahimara Fantauzzi before netting their final goal with a minute left by Jezmine Lora-Ruiz.

               WNCC had a few scoring changes to avoid the shutout, but couldn't get anything past the Golden Eagles' goal keepers Aissa Pedraza-Lopez and Marissa Schultz. Bailey Wenz was in net for the Cougars and made 11 saves.

               WNCC will be back in action at home on Friday in a doubleheader. The Cougar women, 2-2, will host Hutchinson Community College at 1 p.m. at the Landers Soccer Complex, while the Cougar men, 3-3-1, will host Northeastern Junior College at 3:30 in a Region IX Conference contest.