WNCC women suffer first loss of the season

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team felt the taste of defeat for the first time after opening the season with four straight wins.

That sour taste was handed to them by No. 11 Laramie County Community College Wednesday afternoon as the Golden Eagles were too much for the Cougars to handle on the overcast afternoon, shutting out the Cougar women 2-0.

Even though the Cougars suffered their first loss of the season while being scored upon for the first time in four matches, WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said they can learn from this contest and the biggest lesson his young team can take from the defeat is playing at a higher level.

“We physically got beat to death,” he said. “ Unfortunately that is way some games are. I talked to the girls a little bit that we need to toughen up and need to understand that every game with a top 15 opponent will be played at this level. So if we want to be a top 15 team, we are going to have to regroup from this and we are going to have to take this experience and realize that when we are not the team setting the pace of the game that it is being played at, we are going to be the team that will wear out and break down. That is what happened to us today.”

The rough play on the field played to the Golden Eagles advantage as LCCC outshot the Cougars 17-4. The defending Region IX champions, who dropped it's opening two matches to Butler Community College and the University of Colorado Gold, looked like a championship team on this date.

The WNCC women went into the match having not allowed a goal and it didn’t take the Golden Eagles long to stop that streak. Just 10 minutes into the contest, Emi Yamamoto scored off an assist from Cori Mizel.

That was all the scoring the Golden Eagles could muster in the first half as the Cougar defense kept playing tough, thwarting many shot attempts. WNCC did have two scoring chances in the first half to tie the score, but both shots were either wide or high as the halftime score was 1-0.

The second half play was dominated by LCCC as they kept the ball in the midfield area or on the offensive side for nearly 40 minutes of the half. LCCC added an insurance goal with 24:25 to play as Iren Dahan scored off an assist from Brittney Demartin.

WNCC, once again, had just two shots on goal in the second half. WNCC goal keeper Jessica Taylor made eight saves in net of shots on goal.

Rasnic said his players were taken out of the game by the physical play on the field by the LCCC players. Laramie County blanked the Cougars in another statistic as well, recording nine corner kicks to WNCC's zero.

WNCC, 4-1, will look to rebound this weekend, but it won't be easy. The women will face No. 13 Hutchinson Community College on Saturday and Cloud County Community College on Sunday.

Region IX Standings

Team Conf. Overall

Western Wyoming 1-0-0 2-1-0

Laramie County 1-0-0 1-2-0

Western Nebraska 1-1-0 4-1-0

Northwest Wyo. 0-2-0 1-2-1

Tuesday's Game

Western Wyo. 5, Northwest Wyo. 0

Wednesday's Game

LCCC 2, WNCC 0

Friday's Games

Western Wyoming at Wyoming Club

Saturday's Games

WNCC at Hutchinson C.C.

Western Wyoming vs. Barton C.C. in Cheyenne