WNCC women shutout Northwest Wyoming 4-0

The Western Nebraska Community College women's soccer team put together another solid defensive effort in capturing its third shutout victory of the season with a 4-0 Region IX win over Northwest College Saturday at the Landers Soccer Complex.

The Cougars outshot the Trappers 22-7 in the contest but more importantly they scored goals when they needed to.

"Today we played really good. We were actually talking and passing more in the back," freshman Daisy Rosales of Commerce City, Colo., said. "We just need to work a little bit more at forward because we miss Kristi [Blicharz, who is out with an injury]."

Rosales said Northwest is not a bad team. The Trappers, in their first year in Region IX soccer, came into the contest with a 1-0-1 record after dropping Dodge City Community College and tying Cisco Junior College. She said this was a good win in seeing how they match up against Region IX competition.

"They were pretty good and competitive," she said. "We now know the taste of what hard teams are like to play."

It took both teams a while to get the butterflies. Finally with 14 minutes left in the first half, and after missing three prime scoring chances, the Cougars broke the ice. Freshman Ashley Gleason scored the opening goal from assists from Leticia Lopez and Fernanda Acorinte for the 1-0 lead.

Six minutes later, Rosales made a nice sliding pass to Brittany McNeil for the 2-0 lead. It was McNeil's seventh goal of the season.

WNCC kept playing strong offensively in the second half. After two near misses early in half, including a shot that hit the crossbar, the Cougars finally broke the scoring drought as Gleason notched her second goal from an assist from McNeil with 22 minutes to play.

The Cougars wen up 4-0 as Rosales took a pass from Jordan Lutkin and planted a 25-footer into the upper 90 with 17 minutes left.

Rosales said she read the goalkeeper and knew where to aim the ball.

"I saw the goalie out so I saw it was a perfect opportunity to kick it," she said.

WNCC, 3-0, was playing shorthanded as several players are sidelined with various injuries. Rosales said that they will need to connect on more scoring chances.

"We just need to try to keep finishing the shots," she said. "We have to start seeing where to put the ball in frame. That will be in practice next time."

The Cougars will have little time to rest as they will be back in action Sunday when they travel to face Butler County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyo. First kick is slated for 10 a.m. After that, they will face another Region IX contest on Wednesday on the road in Cheyenne against Laramie County Community College.

"We need to see the errors that we did today and work them out," she said. "We just need to see and look for our players for shot. Then, the most important thing is to finish the shot."