Region IX Women's Soccer ChampionsThe Western Nebraska Community College women's soccer team knew it wasn't going to be an easy road to the Region IX championship.
Then, again,the women had nothing to lose nothing, and they went out in the championship mat and played like champions, earning the programs second regional championship with a thundering 3-1 against No. 4 ranked Laramie County Community College in the championship match Sunday at Rock Springs, Wyo.
To say the least, WNCC soccer coach Todd Rasnic and the players were ecstatic by earning the regional title.
"This win was because of the effort of the kids. The game is about the players and they certainly went out and showed that today. They went out and took ownership of the game," Rasnic said. "We just played basic soccer. No one did anything spectacular, we just played together and continued to play the game that we needed to play to keep moving forward in this tournament all weekend."
Rasnic said WNCC was just better then LCCC was on Sunday and it showed on the scoreboard.
"They played our game. We had the same four goals from the other day and they completed all four of those objectives very well," Rasnic said. "Basically we went out and did what we do every day, except we did it better then our opponent.
"That was our theme. We were just going to go and do what we always do. We are going to go out and play a good physical, technical game of soccer and perform better then our opponents. That is what we did both games and we came out on top."
The Cougars, 11-6-1, will now head to the district playoffs Nov. 7-8 at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kan. The winner of the district playoffs then heads to the national championships Nov. 19-23 in Chandler, Ariz.
Sunday, though, was all Cougars from the get-go as the team put together a complete team effort. The goals Rasnic set forth for the team which they needed to execute to get the win included winning the 50/50 balls and the 1v1 challenges; don't give up penalities; track players on transition, so when the other team gets the ball each player had to pick someone up as they were traveling to the other end of the field; and to keep their team discipline on the field, which includes staying organization.
They also scored goals against the No. 4 team in the nation, and it didn't take them long either.
The Cougars took a quick 1-0 lead with only 5:50 gone in the match as Ashley Quintana took a pass from Brooke Dudley and buried the ball in the back of the net. That was all the scoring in the first half.
Rasnic said that opening goal was huge.
Rasnic said Quintana broke free on the side and played the ball with some speed and some spin on it. The keeper wasn't able to handle it the first time and Quintana followed her shot and popped it into the net a second time.
"She just performed what we were trying to do all year," Rasnic said. "We have been trying to clean up our finishing, which by and large, is following up the shot and putting the ball in the back of the net."
Laramie County fought back in the second half, tying the match on a goal by Michaela Boyd in the 51st minutes.
That was it for the Golden Eagles scoring as the Cougar defense shut down the nationally-ranked team. WNCC, on the other hand, wasn't done scoring. In the 76th minute, Gering's Keah Brost knocked in what turned out to be the game winner. Brost took a pass from Ana Jacobo, dribbled a couple times and nailed the back of the net for the 2-1 lead.
Rasnic said Brost's goal was perfect execution of a play.
"Keah basically anticipated play and made a big run," he said. "She received the ball behind the defense, took a couple of dribbles, and put a hard shot on goal keeping it away from the goal keeper and put it right in net. It was a great hit. Sometimes you get those goals where you have to get the rebound [like the first goal] and this one basically she freed herself up in space and was very composed on the final shot, and put it where it belonged."
WNCC added an insurance goal in the 85th minute as Quintana had an unassisted goal to salt the match away and earn the Cougars a berth in the district championships in November.
The women are out there playing, and we as coaches, were glad they stepped out there and played like we knew they could do.
Both teams finished with 13 shots on goal. The big difference was the play in net by Cougar goalkeeper Terri Huntington, who recorded 12 saves. The Cougars also had four corner kicks compared to just two for the Golden Eagles.
"Terri did some really good things today and we know she will do some more good things in days to come," Rasnic said. "Again, she went out and did her job and she did it well. That is what it takes [to win] and that is everybody doing their jobs the way they should be."
The championship is not only special to Rasnic, but also the players, who bought into the coach's philosopy on the field.
"The one thing I have to say about these ladies all season long is they have bought in to what we are doing and taken ownership in things that we tried to put in as coaches," Rasnic said. "They have bought into it and in every single game, I have seen our ladies take what we have been doing in training and putting it out on the field.
"I knew eventually it would pay off. It was a long road, but we continued to get better as the season wore on. They probably have the best team chemistry of any team that I have coached. They don't fight and they are all friends and they get along. They work well together."
"I knew it was a matter of time. There were moments where I thought maybe this is not going to work out. We stayed the course and kept doing the same things we have been doing. Sometimes you drop a couple of key matches and you start second quessing, that what we were doing was not going to work. We just continued to believe in what we were doing, and as we continued to believe and pushing theh ladies to believe in what we were doing, they turned that corner and bought into what we were doing and were performing that on the field. "
WNCC's rise to the championship has come full circle. After the team won their first rgional title in 2003, the teams first year fielding a team, the Cougars did not field a team in 2005 because of a coaching change. Three years later, the Cougars are in the championship circle. Rasnic said that is tribute of the ladies for doing the job on the field.
"Every game is special to me. It is one of those things where this game is about the players, and honestly, I think I didn't do anything special with these girls as a coach. They just went out and they made the decision they were going to put a game out on the field that is of the highest quality," he said. " I can life with that. It is always a good feeling to win, but we have more road blocks in our way to achieve goals for this year. Right now we are celebrating the win and now we are ready to get back down to business and we are going to take what is in front of us. We will go into district play and see how things shape up from there."
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