The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team captured their first wins of the season as the Cougars defeated Northeastern Junior College 1-0 on Friday and then defeated Lamar Community College 2-1 on Saturday.
The two wins put the Cougars at 2-7-1 overall and to 2-2-1 in conference play.
WNCC returns to action next weekend when they hit the road against Trinidad State College on Friday and Otero College on Saturday.
Friday’s win was a defensive contest against NJC and Millie Selfe registered her first collegiate goal as WNCC won 1-0.
The first half was defensive with plenty of shots by both teams with nothing going into the net as the two teams were knotted at 0-0 at halftime.
The second half saw WNCC saw WNCC get four shots at the net early on, but nothing. NJC was having the same of unlucky shooting as the Plainswomen had three straight attacks, but nothing including a chance to score off a free kick and also a corner kick.
Finally, with 25 minutes to play, Selfe got the ball and drive the box until finding an opening in the defense and powered the ball into the back of the net for the 1-0 lead.
Selfe also had two more shots to score again, but the first one with 22:30 to play went wide and then second one with 13 minutes to play off a corner kick, was saved by the goalkeeper.
NJC had a couple of chances to score, but the Cougar defense was too strong and avoided the tying goal.
WNCC’s Dory Jenson had four saves in net.
Saturday’s contest against Lamar was a tale of two halves. WNCC, on sophomore recognition day for the nine sophomores, played strong defensively all 90 minutes. Both teams had very few shots in the first half. Lamar got the better of the two teams when the Lopes scored with 11:18 to play in the half as Jacqueline Oropeza Pena took a shot from Rut Salinas and kicked a ball that bounced high and over the out reached arms of WNCC goalkeeper Emily Villagomez for the score for the 1-0 halftime lead.
The second half was a different story for the Cougars. WNCC continued playing strong defensively as they didn’t allow a goal. On offense, the Cougars were in an attacking mode and it started early as a shot three minutes into the half went wide. Selfe then had a shot with 34 minutes to play that had a wide open net that went wide.
That aggressive offensive approach finally paid off for the Cougars as Tanner Nelson took a free kick from Amanda Duarte in the 58th minute and put the ball into the back of the net to tie things up.
WNCC followed with three straight corner kicks in a 2-minute span but couldn’t find the net. Mariah Russel then had a shot for WNCC that the Scottsbluff native just missed.
Russel didn’t give up as she finally put the Cougars in front when she took a pass from Danae Montalvo and put the ball into the net on some great passing for the 2-1 lead.
WNCC kept attacking but came up short on goals but their defense got them the win.
WNCC saw six shots from Nelson in the contest while Russel had three and Selfe and Duarte each had two.
Villagomez had three saves in net for the Cougars.
