WNCC soccer men end season in playoffs on Oct. 23

               [Oct. 23, 2012] POWELL, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer team saw its season come to an end in the first round of the Region IX playoffs after dropping a 3-0 contest to Northwest College in Powell, Wyo., on Tuesday.

                The Cougars finish the season at 4-13 while Northwest advances in the playoffs with a 14-5 mark.

                WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said his team just couldn’t score despite having chances.

                “We just couldn’t score. We had chances, but we just didn’t finish,” he said. “We did not possess the ball enough and we were not patient with the ball when we were in close at all. They [Northwest] did well offensively and penetrated on us and found some success.”

                The Trappers scored first scoring with 12:30 left in the first half on a goal by Will Moats. Northwest added another first half goal with 5:23 left as Dean Johnson found the back of the net for the 2-0 halftime lead.

                Northwest added just a single goal in the second half 15 minutes into the final period with Marcus Couldridge scoring.

                The Trappers held a huge shot advantage 20-1. Northwest had 15 shots on goal while the Cougars didn’t have any shots on frame. Northwest held a 6-2 corner kick advantage. Joey Rasnic had 12 saves in net in his final game in a Cougar uniform.

                Rasnic said it is time to go back to the drawing board in recruiting for next season. He said what hampered the team all season were injuries, especially to the defenders. The Cougars played the match with four injured defenders.

                “I thought we were going to be strong at defender and the midfield at the beginning of the season but it never happened because of injuries,” he said.

                WNCC loses 10 sophomores off this year’s team in Joey Rasnic, Mason Nab, Cody Thompson, Harry Buerno, Kyle Gonzales, Jacob Santos, Adhemar Lino, Mark Hubbard, JC Fernandez, and Tiki Lee.