More photos of the soccer match can be viewed at the WNCC Athletic Photo Album at wncccougars.albumpost.com

The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team got two goals each from Bre Perkes and Tamika Smith to register a 4-3 win Saturday at the Lander’s Soccer Complex. But the players realize they need to play much better if they are going to vie for a Region IX championship.

“We can play a lot better right now,” Perkes, the sophomore leading scorer said. “With LeAnna [Paxton] being out, it messed up our midfield a little bit, but she should be back real soon and we will be a lot stronger. Today, was not one of our best games. We definitely can play a whole lot stronger.”

The Cougars came out flatter then a pancake it the opening half and trailed 1-0 at halftime as Colorado scored at the 20:17 mark on a goal by Barbara Terrazas. The Cougars only had four shots on goal in the first half.

To say the least, WNCC coach Todd Rasnic was pleased.

“Coach told us that all we needed to do is show some heart and prove that we wanted to win,” Smith said. “We didn’t come to play, so he told us that if we want to get somewhere and win, we needed to step up and play hard. Our heart, desire and willingness to win helped us step it up in the second half.”

It didn’t take long for the Cougars to overcome the sluggish first half as WNCC scored three goals in a three minutes to take a 3-1 lead.

Smith got the scoring started as she dribbled up field and blasted a running 25-foot sot into the upper right corner just three minutes into the second half.

Less then two minutes later, Perkes took a pass from Krystin Wingert, beat Colorado goalkeeper Syndey Schavietello, who down to try to block the ball, and Perkes easily touched the ball into the back of the net. WNCC wasn’t through. A minute after Perkes put WNCC up 2-1, the sophomore from Fremont, Utah, delivered a pass to Smith, who nailed her second goal of the game with 37:24 to play.

The Cougars went up 4-1 with 28:54 to play. This time, it was Perkes who recorded her second goal as she blasted a 35-footer straight into the net just above the Colorado goalkeeper’s hands.

Colorado scored to more goals late, both by Meg Baldwin on a direct kick with 26 minutes to play and the second on a penalty kick with four minutes to play to make the score respectful.

Perkes said they came out in the second half with a whole lot more fire.

“We know we can play better. All the girls played well together and showed a lot of heart in that second half,” she said. “The first half we weren’t going to the ball very well and we were playing very flat. We then had a talk at halftime and we came out a whole lot stronger. We were doing one- and two-touch ball to each other and it opened us up a whole lot to get our shots off.

The Cougars finished with 12 shots on goal, eight in the second half, to Colorado’s 8. WNCC goalkeeper finished with nine saves in net to help WNCC snap a 2-match losing skid.

WNCC will be next in action Wednesday when they travel to Boulder, Colo., to face the University of Colorado Black team.