WNCC top Hesston College for first win of the season

The Western Nebraska Community College men's soccer team played a strong second half and the end result was an impressive 2-0 win over Hesston College Sunday at the Landers Soccer Complex.

The Cougars (1-1) limited the Larks to just eight shots on goal as WNCC goalkeeper Andrei Rodriquez made four saves to earn the win in net.

The difference in the game, however, was the team's defensive play late in the second half. The Cougars lost a player due to a red-card infraction with 33 minutes to play. After that, the Cougar defense, playing short a player, stepped up.

WNCC sophomore defender Kevin Lopez said the team played strong defense.

"The defense was really solid. The bad thing is we got one of the guys out with a red card so that affected us. Other than that, we played O.K."

The win was much needed after the Cougars lost a heartbreaker on Friday to Monroe Community College 4-2 after leading at half 2-1. Lopez said they played well in the second half on Sunday.

"We did much better controlling the ball in the second half," he said. "But we still need to work more on being faster because the pace of the game was really slow. We controlled the ball a lot and that was something that I liked. We just have to get faster."

WNCC scored just two goals in the contest, but easily could have had another four as they missed on some prime scoring opportunities in the second half. Still, the way the team was playing defensively, two goals were enough.

The Cougars took a 1-0 lead in the first half as Marcel Sales took a pass from Maguel Leon and planted the ball firmly in the back of the net. The game stayed that way until the second half when the Cougars scored at just six minutes into the second 45-minute half.

This time Sales was on the assist side as the sophomore delivered a pass to freshman Jose Netto in the middle of the field. After a brief pause, he delivered a rocket into the net for the 2-0 lead.

After that, WNCC had four great scoring opportunities but Hesston's goalkeeper Perry Andre came up with two huge saves to thwart the scoring changes for the Cougars.

The Cougars defense was stellar as the Larks had just one corner kick in the contest, which came with about five minutes left in the game. The Cougars finished with six corner kicks. WNCC also out shot Hesston 14-8 as Rodriguez finished with four saves.

Lopez said this win was needed as they head into a home Region IX contest on Saturday against Northwest College at the Landers Soccer Complex. The contest is slated for a noon start.

"This win will help us a lot for the next games that we have. This is huge for us to win against a good team like we did."