The women scored two early goals and then let their strong defense shut down the Mustangs in a 2-0 win. The men’s contest was a little tighter, but the Cougars received a goal from Jose Macias with 18 minutes to play in the 2-1 win.
Both Squads advance to Saturday’s championship against Laramie Community College. The women’s contest starts at 1 p.m. with the men’s contest to follow at the LCCC soccer fields.
The Cougar women will be looking to capture their second straight title after downing LCCC last year. Sophomore Jaime Gastelle said they will need to be ready to play Saturday afternoon.
“We need to come out strong like we did today [Friday],” she said. “We have to work the full 90 minutes like we did today. We have to work hard and we have to play evenly to win.”
The Cougars lightning quick start definitely was a shock to everyone, even to Gastelle. Gastelle wasted little time in taking a pass from Ana Jacobo to score just 13 seconds into the game for the 1-0 lead. Jacobo put the Cougars up 2-0 in the first half as the sophomore from Aurora, Colo., scored at the 23rd minute mark off an assist from Keah Brost.
WNCC let their defense control the pace of the game in the second half, shutting out the Mustangs. The Cougars received a stellar goal-tending effort from Jessica Taylor in net as the freshman recorded 15 saves. Many of the shots, however, weren’t a threat to go in.
“We did really well. We came out really strong and really fast and I think we caught the other team off guard,” she said. “That first goal 13 seconds in the match was a surprise, but it was a lift for our team.”
Gastelle said they wouldn’t be playing in the title contest if it wasn’t for another strong defensive unit.
“We were really strong defensively,” she said. “I thought we had really good defenders that ran through every ball and won a lot of balls. They did really well today.”
The men also got out to a quick start, but had to utilize some late-game magic to register the win against the Mustangs.
The Cougars’ Matt Hoffman scored the first goal off an assist from Nate Southard in the 22nd minute for the 1-0 lead. WNCC couldn’t hold the lead as Western Wyoming tied the game at 1-1 going into halftime.
Both teams played even after that until Jose Macias decided enough was enough. Macias, a freshman from Aurora, Colo., put the Cougars up 2-1 in the 18th minute after stealing the ball from the defender and hammering it into the net. After that, wNCC shut down the Mustang offense to get the win.
WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said the guys controlled the tempo of the game after starting off a little shaky.
“They played well. We started off unlucky again by hitting the cross bar twice on shots. Our final third of play looked really nice. We built the ball up well and possessed most of the game. We definitely came out to play like we wanted to be the Region IX champions. We definitely pressured them a lot better then what we have against them.”
Rasnic said both teams will need to duplicate their efforts on Friday to the championship contests Saturday.
“Both teams will have to come out and duplicate efforts. The women played a pretty flawless game, scoring in the first 12 seconds and then maintaining the lead and adding to it as the game went along,” he said. “I think if both teams come out with that focus tomorrow with the same effort, I think we will be fine.”
The last time WNCC and LCCC met on the soccer field, about two weeks ago, the LCCC men registered an -1-0 win, while the Cougar and LCCC women settled for a 0-0 tie in double overtime. The winner of Region IX will head to districts the first weekend in November. The women will head to Kansas, while the men go to Missouri.
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