The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team have won three straight matches after making it a perfect weekend on Sunday by defeating Dodge City Community College 3-2.
The men also found the going positive as they earned a hard-fought win over Dodge City 2-1 in double overtime.
Both Cougar teams will now turn their focus to the Region IX playoffs, which will be played at the Landers Soccer Complex Friday and Sunday. The Cougar men will play a semi-final match Friday at 2 p.m. against Western Wyoming Community College with the winner facing Laramie County Community College at 2 p.m. on Sunday for the championship.
The women will next play Laramie County Community College Sunday at noon for the Region IX title. Both winners on Sunday will advance to the district title.
WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said that his teams are beginning to come around and he feels confident that, if they play like they did this past weekend, they can get to that district playoffs.
“Things are clicking on all cylinders with the women’s team,” he said. “The women are equivalent to 11-6 now and that is up there with the teams that are ranked. We just need to step up our play Sunday [against a team that beat the No. 1 ranked team in the nation]. If we win that one, we can go on to the districts.”
In fact, the Cougar women tallied three goals in the second half to earn the win. After trailing 1-0 at halftime, sophomore Bre Perkes nailed a penalty kick to tie the match. It wasn’t too much long that Perkes recorded her second goal of the match, taking a pass from Ashley Quintana for a 2-1 lead.
WNCC added an insurance goal as Gering’s Nancy Boyack found Quintana for the goal and the 3-1 lead.
Dodge City scored a late goal which didn’t have an effect on the contest. Both teams had four shots on goal. Dodge City had more corner kicks then WNCC, 6-4. WNCC’s Terri Huntington picked up the win in net with three saves.
Rasnic said that he was especially proud of his women’s team as they found the will to win against a very physical Dodge City team.
“It was the most physical match that we played all year,” Rasnic said. “We stuck with it and the they girls said they were tired of being pushed around and did a good job of taking control in the second half.
The women came through in the 35 mph winds and it carried over to the men’s team. Rasnic said his men’s team not only controlled play, but they kept their composure in another very physical match.
“It was the most physical match that we have played all year,” he said. “The guys played really good. They [Dodge City] did everything they could do to get us frustrated and our guys stepped up and played a complete game without losing their control. It was a rough contest, but the right team won.”
WNCC scored first in the contest as Scottsbluff’s Geoff Critzer took a deflection off a defender and buried into the back of the net at the 36th minute of the first half.
Dodge City tied the match six minutes later on a shot as both teams went into intermission at 1-1. Neither team scored in the second half, forcing overtime.
Just four minutes into the first overtime, Scottsbluff’s Shayne Tower delivered a pass to Gering’s Chris Thompson for the go-ahead goal. The Cougars then got defensive as they shutout Dodge City the rest of the 16 minutes of overtime for the win.
WNCC had just three shots on goal in the 35 mph winds. WNCC’s Cesar Bazana picked up the win in net with six saves.
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