The Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer team got two goals from sophomore Eduardo Oliveira and used a strong defense stand in recording a 2-1 win over preseason-No. 18-ranked Utah State-Eastern Thursday afternoon at Landers Soccer Complex.
The Cougars will look for another win on Friday when they host Northwest College in a women’s and men’s doubleheader beginning at 10 a.m.
WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said it was a good win, but there are still soccer matches to play to get a try indication of how good this men’s team could be.
“I have no idea how big of a win this was,” Rasnic said. “This team from Utah State-Eastern is not the same team from last year. We have not got a gauge of how good we are yet. It probably will take three or four games. If we come back tomorrow (Friday) and give the same type of effort that we gave today, then we can start to think that we are heading in the right direction.”
Rasnic said he was impressed with a couple players in the game.
“Right now, a few key players stood out. Our goalkeeper Owen Henderson out of Greeley, wow, what a performance from a first-game freshman. He just played out of his mind,” he said. “Then, a captain Jeronimo Zelaya-Diaz really stood out to me in the game, and of course Eduardo. What do you say about Eduardo. These are the kind of games that will come around a lot this year. In our first six games, we are playing five or four teams that are in the Top 20. We will see how things keep going and if these guys can come out and duplicate effort day-after-day, then we can set our own limits.”
The defense played really well and the Cougars got the goals when needed.
“We had the run of play early in the game, but once halftime was over, he made some changes and we settled in too comfortable,” Rasnic said. “I think it took us the first 20 minutes of the second half to come back at them hard again. We got that additional goal.”
The first half was a fast-paced team between the two teams as WNCC controlled play early on with a number of shots. Oliveira scored in the 35th minute but it was waved off because of offsides.
Oliveira continued playing hard and had an assisted goal with 27:04 left in the first half to put the Cougars on top 1-0. The Cougar defense played stellar the rest of the half, thwarting several scoring opportunities.
The second half was a defensive contest with no scoring for nearly 40 minutes. The big excitement in the game was a baby frog being saved from being stepped on with 19 minutes to play by two Cougar women’s soccer players and the side referee.
The saved frog sparked Utah State-Eastern as two minutes later they had a free kick that went high. Then, with 13:45 to play, the Eagles scored, but the score was nullified because of offsides.
The final seven minutes saw plenty of action as Oliveira netted his second goal off an assist from Cougar goalkeeper Owen Henderson for a 2-0 lead with 6:38 to play.
WNCC couldn’t keep the goose-egg on the scoreboard as Utah State-Eastern’s Kyson Wilcox scored off a free kick with 1:36 to play to make it 2-1. No other scoring was after that.
