WNCC men top LCCC 3-2, women fall 7-2

If ever the Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer team needed a win, today was the perfect time to get it.

It’s been three years since the Cougar men, who have been shut out in their last three contests, have beaten Laramie County Community College, and Wednesday afternoon at the Landers Soccer Complex, the Cougar men stopped both streaks with an impressive 3-2 win over the Golden Eagles.

The Cougar women couldn’t match the men’s accomplishment as Laramie County sophomore Amanda Halter had her first hat trick in leading the Golden Eagle women to a 7-2 win.

The Cougar men played one of the better matches of the season from start to finish. Miguel Leon, who scored the winning goal in the second half, said the win was much needed.

“This is a big win for us after losing a couple games, and LCCC is a rival. I think we played hard for the full 90 minutes. The second half we lose a guy, but we kept working hard and got the win.”

Wednesday’s win wasn’t no regional championship, but it felt close, especially since the Cougar men haven’t beaten the two-time defending champs for the past three years.

“This win feels great,” Leon said. “This is my sophomore year and last year we lost three games to Laramie County 1-0, and it feels good to beat them in our house.”

WNCC quickly set the tone in the match as they scored as they scored two goals in the first 19 minutes of the contest. Jose Netto scored the first goal, taking a pass from Leon just eight minutes into the match.

Eleven minutes later, WNCC went up 2-0 as Marcel Sales scored from the middle after taking a pass from Alex Ferreyra. The lead would stay that way through halftime.

Leon said the way his team came out in the first half was the difference in the game.

“We kept the focus in the first half and in the second half, we never thought that we were one man down,” he said. “We kept working hard and that was the key in the game.”

LCCC wasted little time to score in the second half. Just 30 seconds into the final 45 minutes, Casey Allen drilled a penalty kick into the back of the net to slice the deficit in half. The Golden Eagles tied the contest at 2-2 with 26:31 to play as Gulherme Andrade scored from a pass from Cord Stimpston.

WNCC kept fighting and scored the go-ahead goal with 17 minutes to play as Leon took a pass from Sales and hit a soft kick over the goalkeeper into the bottom corner of the net. Leon said he saw an opportunity and found the opening in the defense.

“I kept working to get that shot all game and finally I got it,” Leon said. “I just saw the keeper coming out and I kicked it in.”

After that, the Cougar defense took over as they stopped many scoring chances by the Golden Eagles.

Leon said the defense played well.

“The last 10 minutes of each half was kind of hard because they attacked a lot,” he said. “We kept working hard and we kicked the ball out of their end. We just focused on defense.

LCCC outshot the Cougars 19-9, but it was Jesus Alvarado’s play in net that was golden for the Cougars. The freshman from Cozad made 13 saves in net to give the Cougars their first Region IX win this year to three defeats.

Next for the Cougars is a contest against the University of Colorado Gold team Sunday in Boulder. They will then return home to face Otero Junior College in a Region IX contest on Wednesday at 1 p.m.

The women’s game was a different story for the Cougars. The game started out as a dual between two Region IX powers but later it became a one-sided contest. The Golden Eagles scored first as Monica Lubin took a pass from Emi Yamamoto just 4:15 into the contest for a quick 1-0 lead. The Cougar defense settled down and the offense came through to tie the game at 1-1 with 23:20 left in the half. Brittany McNeal had the unassisted goal as she launched about a 35-foot shot that sailed over the goalkeeper’s head right into the net.

The contest stayed tied for the next 10 minutes before Halter took control, scoring three straight goals. Her first came with 13:08 left off an assist from Cori Mizel and her second game with 11:38 left off an assist from Lubin. Her hat trick goal came with 1:30 left in the half from a pass from Ghino Kunisawa. Then, with just 30 seconds left in the half, Kunisawa scored from an assist Brittney Swensen for the 5-1 halftime lead.

LCCC wasted little time to add to the lead in the second half as Junko Honda had an unassisted goal. The Golden Eagles pushed the lead to 7-1 with 13 minutes to play as Kunisawa scored her second goal off an assist from Whitney Oney.

WNCC kept fighting to the end as their timing was inches from scoring on about five breakaways. Rachelle Tekler, who usually plays defense, was moved to the forward position in the second half and missed by inches on a goal with 12:45 to play.

Tekler, however, recorded her first goal of the season with 18.7 seconds to play from a corner kick. Jordan Lutkin delivered the ball from the corner and McNeal got a piece of the ball and rebounded to Tekler who sent it flying into the net.

LCCC outshot the Cougars 13-7. LCCC also had three corner kicks to the Cougars two. WNCC’s Jessica Taylor made six saves in net.

WNCC will return to action this weekend when they compete in the CU-Boulder tournament. The Cougars first match will be Friday evening against the CU White team. They will then face a Colorado State team Saturday morning before entering bracket play. The Cougar women will return home Saturday, Oct. 2 to face Western Wyoming Community College.