CHEYENNE, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team’s defense earned a moral victory over the NJCAA 6th-ranked Laramie County Community College women Wednesday at Cheyenne, Wyo. The Cougar women shut out the Golden Eagles, who dropped to 11-1-2, and earned a 0-0 double overtime tie in Region IX action.
The Cougar men, on the other hand, couldn’t hold the LCCC men scoreless, suffering a 1-0 defeat to the Golden Eagles. LCCC scored with 32 seconds to play to earn the win.
The women’s contest, however, was a testament of a defense not giving up as the LCCC offense kept pressure on the Cougar women for the 90 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime period. The Cougar defense never gave up a score, as Jessica Taylor and Jacee Roseberry combined on 14 saves.
“I think our heart kept us going,” Roseberry sai
d. “I am pretty sure the adrenalin was pumping so much that we weren’t going to stop playing strong defense.”
Roseberry was part of that defense on the field that shut down the ranked Golden Eagles. Roseberry also was thrown into duty as goalkeeper in the second overtime period after starting keeper Jessica Taylor had to come out for after an injury. Roseberry made two huge saves in her three minutes in net to thwart any game winning goals by the Golden Eagles. Taylor later returned to net to finish out the contest.
“I almost fainted when [assistant coach Jim Miller] called me to go in,” the Gering graduate said. “I was in there making saves just for the team. I was in there to keep us in it.”
And when Roseberry wasn’t in net, Taylor was thwarting shot after shot from the Golden Eagles, including some clutch diving saves.
It was Taylor’s play in net that kept the players’ spirits up.
“We just said we made it this far, we are not going to let anything go by us now,” Roseberry said. “This is a big win for us. It means we are coming up. Our team is starting to come together.”
The Cougars managed just five shots on goal compared to 14 for the Golden Eagles. LCCC also had 10 corner kicks to the Cougars’ zero.
WNCC had two good scoring opportunities in the second half, the first coming at the 37 minute mark. The other came with about 15 minutes to play when Brooke Dudley just barely missed.
The Cougar’s offense came charging hard in the overtime period. Ana Jacobo had two scoring opportunities but just missed. The first was just 30 seconds into the overtime period, while the other came with three minutes left.
Jordan Lutkin also had a chance at cashing in on the winning goal with 3:45 left in the first overtime.
The second overtime, played in dissipating light, saw Taylor make a huge diving save with 8:12 left to play. That was when Roseberry was called into duty in net. For the next three minutes, Roseberry and the rest of the Cougar defenders thwarted three shots on goals, two of which were saves by Roseberry.
Laramie County had one last chance of hitting the winning goal as the Golden Eagles had a corner kick with a minute to play. Taylor came up big and the Cougars hung another tie on the No. 6 team in the nation.
Roseberry said the match became challenging, especially in the overtime periods, when there was little light on the field as the sun was almost completing down. That, however, didn’t bother them as they played evening games last weekend in the Boulder tournament.
“It was a tough match and we fought hard,” she said. “I am pretty sure this will boost us a ton. This is a big game for us and to come away with a tie, it will boost our confidence and strengthen us as a team.”
While the Cougar women earned a moral victory with a tie, the Cougar men suffered a heartbreaking defeat. Neither team had much offense in the first half. The second half saw plenty of shots, but both goal keepers were earning saves left and right.
The Cougar men had a couple of prime scoring opportunities. Marcel Sales missed on a shot at the 34 minute mark. The Cougar men had another prime scoring shot after Gustavo Rincon delivered a pass that was intercepted by LCCC with 20 minutes to play. Sales had another chance to score at the 13 minute mark, but just misfired.
With overtime looming, LCCC finally found the net with 32 seconds remaining in the game as Santiago Castano scored for the winner.
WNCC had five shots on goal compared to eight for LCCC. David Castillo had nine saves in net. Both teams had three corner kicks each.
The Cougar men and women will now be off until Friday, Oct. 16 when they host Western Wyoming Community College at Landers Soccer Complex in the team’s final home game. The women’s contest starts at 2 p.m. with the men’s contest to follow.
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