WNCC soccer teams battle Northwest College

[Oct. 13, 2012]

                The Western Nebraska Community College men's soccer team made a strong finish to force overtime, but the Cougar men came up short against Northwest College, falling 3-2 Saturday afternoon at the Landers Soccer Complex.

                The Cougar women also played tough, but once again had trouble finding the back of the net in falling to Northwest College 3-0 in action Saturday.

                WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said both teams are hampered with injuries. Still, both teams played well in the second halves.

                "We were banged up in the men's game. We had a couple of our starting defenders out and we had to move Jacob [Santos] into the back to play defender. I have been looking at my bench right know and we are beat up with ankles and knees and pulled groins," Rasnic said. "The good news is that they are starting to get a little bit consistency in their play and they are starting to get better in the offensive third of the field. We are going to keep playing and see how the playoffs go. We get an automatic berth in the playoffs and hopefully we get up against a team that we can battle with."

                The WNCC men played much better in the second half than the first. In the opening 45 minutes, Northwest scored twice. The first goal was made by Gage Woodward, who went one-on-one with WNCC goal keeper Joey Rasnic, made a move and was wide open for an easy score in the 29th minute.

                Northwest's second goal came eight minutes later as Kris Mull scored off an assist from Woodward for the 2-0 halftime lead.

                WNCC sliced the lead in half with 20 minutes to play in the match as Daniel Agnew lofted shot from 45-feet out that looped into the net. Rasnic said that Agnew saw the goal keeper off line and hit the long shot for the goal.

                Two minutes later, though, Northwest went up 3-1 after James McMorrow scored off two fabulous saves from Joey Rasnic, but the third shot went in.

                The Cougars got to within on at 3-2 with 4:19 to play as Jacob Santos intercepted a pass and went straight to the hit and knocked the ball into the net for the score. WNCC had a couple other prime scoring chances to tie the game, but couldn't get a good kick on the ball.

                Northwest outshot WNCC 28-7 and held the corner kick advantage 3-2. Joey Rasnic made 13 saves in net.

                The women's game was a tale of two halves. The Cougar women started off strong with two early shot attempts that just missed. After that, Northwest scored its first goal with 15 minutes gone. The Trappers went up 2-0 on a goal by Samantha Schneider for the halftime lead.

                The second half saw Northwest go up 3-0 just seven minutes into the half on a goal by Samiha Simao. After that, WNCC kept fighting to get a goal as they had plenty of prime scoring chances, but couldn't put the right touch on the ball.

                Northwest out shot WNCC 20-5 and held a 4-1 corner kick advantage. Patty Sylvester had eight saves in net for the Cougars.

                Both Cougar teams will be back in action at home next Friday and Saturday when they host Trinidad State Junior College and Otero Junior College in the regular season finales.