The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team was in striking range of knocking off the No. 9 ranked Laramie County Community College Golden Eagles. LCCC, however, scored two late goals and took advantage of a major turn of momentum to record a 5-2 win over the Cougars at Landers Soccer Complex Wednesday afternoon.
While the Cougar women netted two goals against the Golden Eagles, the Cougar men found the scoring a little tougher, getting shut out by LCCC 1-0.
WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said that his ladies team dominated play in the second half, racing back from a 3-0 deficit to slice the lead to 3-2.
“I wasn’t disheartened at all. We certainly dominated play a good portion of the game,” Rasnic said. “Most of their goals were scored off of quick countering-type of plays. That is something we can fix and that is the good news. Overall, it was that bad. We just didn’t get our offense going that well today.”
“When you play a good team like LCCC who is ranked No. 9 in the nation, you have to play a great game every time and that means both offensively and defensively. We fell short today and I think we will pull ourselves together off of this game and I think the next time we will meet up will be a different story.”
WNCC definitely controlled the momentum in the second half after LCCC jumped to a 3-0 lead. The Golden Eagles held a 2-0 lead at halftime as Michaela Boyd scored off an assist from Kelly Parkhurst nine minutes into the contest. LCCC added a second goal, with 15 minutes left in the half as Kelsey Gapter hit the 
back of the net for the 2-0 halftime lead.
LCCC wasted little time scoring their third goal, taking just 17 seconds of the second half to score as Emi Tamamoto scored off an assist from Parkhurst.
That was when WNCC started dominating play. Ana Jacobo scored the Cougars first goal at the 40 minute mark after taking a pass from Keah Brost. WNCC scored seven minutes later as freshman Brittany McNeil received the ball from Jacobo and planted the ball in the back of the net, slicing the lead to 3-2.
WNCC goalkeeper Jessica Taylor then made two huge saves on LCCC shots. WNCC, however couldn’t get the equalizing goal. The big momentum swing came with about five minutes left in the half when McNeil went down with a knee injury. The five minute halt in play changed the complexion of the contest and LCCC scored two late goals from Boyd and Gapter to seal the win.
Rasnic said that injury timeout did take a little bit of the momentum out of sails of his team.
“We started to come back but we didn’t get the equalizer goal which made us push a little bit harder on top. We took more risks then we normally did, which then we gave up the other two goals at the end,” he said. “I wasn’t disappointed; we just have a lot to work on. We are certainly a team that can play with LCCC and that will be one of our biggest challenges is to get by them in Region IX.”
The Cougars did play even with the No. 9 team in the country, recording nine shots on goal to the Golden Eagles’ 10. Taylor recorded seven saves in net.
The Cougar men’s story was a different story. Both teams failed to score in the first half, settling for a 0-0 tie. Both goalkeepers were pitching a shutout much of the second half, that was until the 19:37 mark when LCCC’s Jakob Baraket found the back of the net on a slow roller that slipped through the hands of the goalkeeper for the 1-0 lead.
WNCC had plenty of changes to score as well. In the first half, Marcel Sales launched a 30-footer that hit the cross bar and sailed away.
In the second half, Tony Rocha had a good shot on net at the 35 minute mark, only to see the ball sail high. A couple minutes later, Salas missed on another shot high. Salas and Kevin Lopes also missed prime scoring opportunities.
After LCCC scored, WNCC had two more chances to tie the contest, but Lopes missed high at the 17 minute mark and then Rocha missed on a shot just high with four minutes to play.
Rasnic said his team just couldn’t find the net.
“There are days that it just isn’t meant to be,” he said. “The goal they scored is one that would be scored in probably one in 150 shots. It just barely dribbled through the goalkeepers legs. Other than that, we played a pretty flawless game. Offensively, we didn’t get the kind of pressure that I would like to see, but we did figure some things out about our opponent and that is what we were out here today to do. “
LCCC registered 10 corner kicks to WNCC’s one. Also the Golden Eagles had five shots on goal compared to WNCC’s three. WNCC did outshoot the Golden Eagles 9-7.
Both teams will be back in action this weekend as they travel to face Iowa Western Community College on Saturday. The Cougar men will then face the University of Nebraska Club team Sunday morning followed by the Cougar women meeting York College Sunday afternoon in York. Both of Sunday’s contests were added to the schedule late.
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