WNCC women's soccer falls to LCCC 6-0

From Sept. 19, 2012 --

                The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team played strong for a portion of its match with Laramie County Community College. In the end the No. 9 ranked Golden Eagles were too tough for the Cougars in earning the 6-0 win Wednesday at the Landers Soccer Complex.

                The bright spot in the contest was how the Cougars played in the first half despite giving up three cheap goals early. Other than that, the Cougars held their own against the defending Region IX champions.

                It took the teams nearly 20 minutes to find the back of the net, and unfortunately for the Cougars, the first goal was an own goal to give LCCC an 1-0 lead with 26:44 to play. One minute later, Sayit Yeneysa Mejia Bello scored the second goal with 25:42 as Bello went one-on-one with Cougar goalkeeper Patty Sylvester and made a move to go straight to the net unintended for the 2-0 lead.

                The Golden Eagles made it 3-0 win the 13^th minute off another easy scoring goal by Bella.

                Take away those three easy goals, the Cougars played tough defense against the No. 9 ranked team.

                Even in the second half, the Cougars held their own against LCCC, especially in the first 14 minutes of the second half. It was in the 31^st minute that the Golden Eagles took a 4-0 lead as Victoria Arenas scored on a 25-foot shot that went in the far top corner.

                When it rains, it pours and the Golden Eagles wasted little time in going up 5-0 as Taylor Hockley scored in the 20^th minute.

                LCCC finished out the scoring in the 16^th minute on a Sarah Kiepich goal off an assist by Courtney Lemmon.

                Despite the loss, the Cougars managed six shots in the contest while LCCC had 11. And, some of those shots the Cougars did manage were near misses. In the first half, WNCC had a good chance to score in the 11^th minute but the shot went wide. Then, with four minutes to play in the half, Ashley Baker missed on a prime scoring opportunity after taking a pass from Anna Rinaldi.

                The Cougars had three prime chances in the second half, including a shot off a corner kick, and then Breanna Smith had a shot in the 17^th minute.

                Sylvester took the loss in net, giving up six goals and making five saves.

                WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said that if this team can get refocused, they have the potential to make some noise in the final weeks of the season.

                “The ladies know where we are at, the now where we need to get to, and will just have to wait to see if the commitment is there,” he said. “If it is, we will continue to improve. They have the potential to be a pretty good team but we are nowhere near that yet. We are going to keep working hard in training to see if we can get some things fixed and getting it in moving in the right direction.”

                The Cougar women will have 10 days off before they get back on the field when they travel to Otero Junior College and Trinidad State Junior College Sept. 28 and 29.