STERLING, Colo. – The Western Nebraska Community College women’s and men’s soccer teams dropped Region IX contests to Northeastern Junior College on Sunday in Sterling, Colorado.
The Cougar women lost a heartbreaker, falling to the Plainswomen in double overtime 2-1.
The Cougar men were shutout by the Plainsmen, falling 4-0.
The WNCC men will next be in action Tuesday when they host Central Community College-Columbus at 3 p.m. The women will next be in action Friday and Saturday when they host Central Wyoming College in a women’s and men’s doubleheader at 1 and 3 p.m. followed by a women’s only game on Saturday at 1 p.m. Saturday’s home contest will be played on the Landers Soccer Complex practice fields because of high school soccer matches on the competition field.
WNCC women’s soccer player Raquel Ferreira said they fought hard but had missed opportunities.
“I believe it was not our best game, we missed some opportunities, but we fought until the end,” the sophomore said. “We had great chances of winning the game, but we ended up wasting [opportunities] Although we have a small number of athletes, I do not believe that this was the reason for our defeat. They were lucky in the last goal and unfortunately, we didn’t have a chance to reverse the score. Next weekend we have two important games and we will work hard to fix the mistakes we are making.”
The women’s contest started out as both teams scored in the first half. NJC knotted the first score at the 14-minute mark when Fernanda Rios scored off an assist from Courtney Dinkel.
WNCC tied the game when Ferreira scored an unassisted goal in the 34th minute as the two teams were tied at halftime 1-1.
After that, neither team scored the rest of regulation or the first overtime. The second overtime period, NJC got the winning goal in the 115th minute on a Myriam Dominguez unassisted goal.
WNCC had seven shots on goal while NJC had 10 shots on goal. WNCC goalkeeper Ana Von Ruden had eight saves in net.
In the men’s contest, NJC scored two goals each in the first and second halves. The Plainsmen scored their first goal in the 21st minute and the second goal in the 26th minute to make it 2-0 entering halftime.
The second half saw the Plainsmen add another two goals, scoring the first one in the 20th minute. NJC added the fourth goal in the 24th minutes for the 4-0 lead.
The WNCC men had seven shots in the game while NJC had just six.
WNCC goalkeeper had Imanol Munoz had three saves in net while Mario Mejia had five saves in net.
