After a week off, the Western Nebraska Community College soccer teams had a tough time in Region IX conference contests against Laramie County Community College Saturday afternoon in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
The Cougar men almost came back to take out the Golden Eagles after trailing 3-0 at halftime, but the Cougars second half came up short as WNCC fell 4-2.
The Cougar women played hard against a LCCC women's team that have been national participants for the last 10-plus years, but in the end the Golden Eagles scored two late second-half goals to earn the 2-0 win.
The women's contest was a defensive battle for the entire contest until the last 10 minutes of the contest as neither team could put the ball into the back of the net.
LCCC managed 14 shots on goal in the match and didn't score it's first goal until a shot by Mattiese Loretan in the 79th minute found the net on an own goal for the 1-0 lead. Loretan scored her second goal four minutes later on a header from a pass from Ellie Williams for the 2-0 lead.
While LCCC had 23 shots, 14 of which were on goal, WNCC had a strong percentage of shots on goal. The Cougars had 10 shots with eight of which were on goal. Andrea Jimenez had seven shots in the contest with four on goal. Lesley Vasquez was 100 percent in the contest with two shots, both on goal.
Summer Parnell had 11 saves in net.
As for cornerkicks, LCCC only bettered the Cougar women by one as the Golden Eagles had four and WNCC had three.
The WNCC men's contest was offensive and defensive as the two teams that are separated by 90 miles hooked up in a thriller.
LCCC started the contest as they seemed as if they were cruising over the Cougar men, scoring three times in the first 20 minutes. The first goal came just five minutes into the contest off a goal from Christian Nunez. Eight minutes later, Jorge Garcia scored and then seven minutes later Daniel Barajas scored.
The next 25 minutes of the first half was all defensive as neither team scored.
After intermission, the WNCC men decided to pick up the offense. Just eight minutes into the second half, Matheus Nascimento took a pass from Rodrigo Cercal and scored for the Cougars.
WNCC kept playing tough defense and sliced the lead to one at 3-2 when Cercal buried a penalty kick in the 64th minute.
The Cougars had opportunities to tie the game, but couldn't get the tying goal in. LCCC added an insurance goal in the 86th minutes when Barajas scored his second goal off an assist from Vitaly Zatikyan for the 4-2 win.
LCCC finished with just eight shots, six of which were on goal. WNCC peppered the goal with 15 shots with 10 of which on goal. Both teams had just one corner kick each.
The game was physical with seven yellow cards issued, five of which went against the Golden Eagles.
The Cougar men and women will wrap up the regular season next weekend when they travel to southern Colorado when they face Otero College on Friday and then Trinidad State College on Saturday. The playoffs then begin the following week.