Soccer recaps from the weekend for the Cougars vs. Laramie County Community College…
WNCC men top LCCC, clinch home semifinal playoff berth
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Western Nebraska Community College’s Eduardo Oliveira scored two goals and the WNCC men’s soccer team knocked off No. 17 Laramie County Community College 3-1 on Saturday in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
The win moves the Cougars to 7-3-2 on the year but more importantly it vaulted the Cougars to the top spot in the Region IX standings. With two matches left, the Cougars have 19 points and are secured in either the first or second seed for the regional playoffs.
The Cougars, because of the one or two seed, will host a semifinal match on October 26. The higher seed will then host the finals November 2.
WNCC has 19 conference points (three points for a win and one point for a tie) and the top six teams make the playoffs. With two matches left, the only team that can pass WNCC for first is LCCC and that is if the Cougars fall in their final matches of the year this weekend.
WNCC will wrap up the regular season on Friday at Northwest College and then Central Wyoming on Saturday. Northwest has nine points while Central Wyoming has 11 points.
Saturday’s contest against LCCC saw the Cougars take control of the game early as Alvaro Abeal took a pass from Oliveira to go up 1-0 just 15 minutes into the game.
Shortly later, Oliveria scored in the 29th minute when he took a pass from Anthony Lemus and that is where the score stood at halftime 2-0.
LCCC sliced the score in half as they scored 10 minutes into the half on a goal from Alvin Udoto.
WNCC quickly got the lead back to two goals as Oliveira scored his second goal of the match when he took a pass from Lemus and finished into the back of the net.
Owen Henderson made five saves in net for the Cougars. LCCC had 10 shots in the contest while WNCC had six. The Golden Eagles had seven corner kicks while WNCC had three.
WNCC women fall to LCCC
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team played strong against Laramie County Community College on Saturday, but in the end the Cougars fell to the Golden Eagles 4-1 in action in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
The loss drops the Cougars to 3-9-1 on the season and 3-4-1 in conference play. WNCC sits in seventh in conference standings and needs to win twice this weekend to be guaranteed a playoff spot but they also need some help from other teams. WNCC has 10 conference points (three points for a win and one point for a tie), while the sixth-place team, Gillette College, has 12 points and two games left.
WNCC will wrap up the regular season this weekend when they travel to Northwest College on Friday and then Central Wyoming College on Saturday. Northwest is third in the conference standings with a 5-2 record while Central is behind WNCC in the standings at 3-5.
Saturday’s contest was one where the Cougars had plenty of shots in the contest. LCCC finished with 16 shots while the Cougars had 10.
The Golden Eagles led at halftime 2-0. Danielle O’Leary scored both first half goals, netting the first in the 17th minute and then getting her second in the 24th minute.
LCCC made it 3-0 four minutes into the second half when Giselle Heck scored on a one-on-one attack.
WNCC answered that goal to make it 3-1 in the 52nd minute when Yasmin Urbina delivered a pass to Millie Selfe and Selfe took a shot from 18 yards out the went into the back of the net.
Aubrey Yantis finished off the scoring for LCCC when she scored on a penalty kick in the 54th minute.
Both WNCC goalkeepers say action and gave up two goals. Emily Villagomez had five saves while Dory Jenson had two saves.
