Cougar men, women fall to Laramie County in soccer on Wednesday

The Western Nebraska Community College soccer teams might have lost the battle on the scoreboard to Laramie County Community College Wednesday evening, but Cougar head coach Todd Rasnic saw plenty of positives that made him pleased.

The Cougar men lost a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime contest to the Golden Eagles. The Cougar women, on the other hand, fell 6-2 despite scoring the most goals on the No. 5 team in the country.

“I wasn’t disappointed today. We did some good things,” Rasnic said. “The LCCC women have only been scored upon in one other game. They only had two goals scored on them and it was in a game they lost. Actually, there were a lot of positive things that went on and I am looking forward to moving forward and trying to pick up some victories in the future.”

The Laramie County women came into the contest steamrolling their competition. And, early on, it looked as if they would do the same to the Cougars jumping out to a 2-0 halftime lead. It didn’t take them long to score the opening goal as Heather Myers scored off a pass from Chelsea Eades at the 36 minute mark.

The Golden Eagles added a second goal with nine minutes to play in the half on a Megan Erikson shot from an assist from Megan Koopman. LCCC outshot the Cougars 7-3 in the first half.

The second half was a different story as the Cougar women came out with a different mentality. Early on, the Cougar women had four good shots on goal, including two from Bre Perkes that just missed.

LCCC then got its offense uncorked over a six-minute period rattling off three goals to take a 5-0 lead. Kim Yaccuta scored the first goal with 29:09 left in the half. Three minutes later, Yaccuta fed Koopman with a pass for a 4-0 lead. Koopman added a second goal with 23:35 to play.

WNCC kept battling and made a game of it, avoiding the shutout. The Cougars netted their first goal with 19:45 to play as Perkes delivered a pass to LeAnna Paxton for the score. Three minutes later, WNCC scored again. This time Ashley Quintana threw the ball in to Perkes, who delivered the ball into the back of the net.

Neither team scored again until with under a minute to play when Eades scored the final goal for LCCC.

LCCC finished with 15 shots on goal and eight corner kicks, while the Cougar women had six shots on goal and three corner kicks. WNCC goalkeeper Terri Huntington had nine saves in net.

Rasnic said the difference in the women’s contest was depth. WNCC played without several players who are nursing injuries.

“He [LCCC coach] has a deep bench with seven or eight players, and right now with the plague of injuries that we have, we are sitting here looking at three players on the bench,” Rasnic said. “The depth of a program makes a big difference. As soon as we get some ladies healthy, the more chance we will have in being successful down the road.”

The Cougar men also played well and had a number of opportunities to win the game. They too, though, were playing without two key starters – Eloy Matos and Steven Estrada who are getting ready to play with their Puerto Rican national team against Cuba for a berth in the China Olympics.

“We are certainly hurting without our starting center back and one of our forwards, but they will be back on Sunday when we host the University of Great Falls,” Rasnic said. “Hopefully, we will have more opportunities to put a better game on the field. You will see that happen and see the win/loss ration change a little bit.”

The Cougars, though, just missed winning the game. WNCC wasted little time to score netting their first goal 12 minutes into the match on a Lazzaro Torres goal off an assist from Morgan Wall.

LCCC came back and knotted the score with 22 minutes left in the half on a goal by Jose Arenas for the 1-1 halftime tie. The score stayed that way through the second period despite the Cougars having a number of opportunities to put in a goal, including a missed shot just 30 seconds into the half.

In the overtime period, WNCC had the first prime scoring opportunity but a pass just missed a open Cougar player. Thirty seconds later, the Golden Eagles ended the match on a 35-yard boot from Conrrado Deniz.

WNCC had just five shots on goal and zero corner kicks, compared to nine shots on goal for Laramie County and six corner kicks. WNCC goal keeper Cesar Bazana recorded seven saves for the Cougars.

“We lost a couple games in the last week but you know what, we are playing right there with all of our competition,” Rasnic said. “Things will change and we have a lot of season left for both teams. We had some key players out today [on both teams] and what you will see is things will solidify a little bit more when we get those players back.”

The women’s team will have little time to heal from the Region IX loss as they hit the road for two matches this weekend in the Butler County Community College tournament Friday and Saturday. The men’s team will be back in action Sunday when they host the University of Great Falls at noon at the Landers Soccer Complex.