The Western Nebraska Community College men's soccer team scored early and Cougar goalkeeper Owen Henderson made some big saves in helping the Cougar men to a 4-1 win over No. 11 Casper College Friday afternoon at Landers Soccer Complex.
"We played just as we expected. We watched the film and coach gave us the notes and all they did was just kick it down the field," Henderson, the goalkeeper from Greeley, Colorado, said. "We played amazing. That third goal I am going to watch it on film until I fall asleep because it was so beautiful of the way we built up. The team played amazing and we have been working like that all week in practice, too."
The win was huge after the Cougars were outscored 11-1 in their last two matches. Friday, everything game together.
"That early goal was huge because the last two results that we had was 6-0 and 5-1 and that was on the road so coming back home we were hungry," Henderson said. "We got the first one and I kept telling to keep pushing and keep going because we need more. One is not enough and we ended up with four."
WNCC scored early whtn Maxime Niyibaho delivered a pass to Anthony Lemus and the freshman from Houston, Texas, put the ball into the back of the net with just under four minutes gone.
WNCC kept playing strong defense and made it 2-0 when Alvaro Abeal gave Simon Echeverry the ball and the sophomore scored in the 38th minute to make it 2-0.
Casper did score at the end of the half, but the shot game after the halftime buzzer went off and the goal was nullified.
The second half saw Casper get a penalty kick just six minutes into the half. Henderson made the save on the kick and it stayed 2-0 in favor of WNCC.
WNCC made it 3-0 with 28:14 to play in the second half when Abeal got his second assist and let Eduardo Oliveira score again to make it 3-0. WNCC made it 4-0 when Echeverry got the assist as Lucas Ovalle scored in the 68th minute.
Casper finally scored in the 82nd minute on a goal by Roy Nozawa to the final 4-1 Cougar win.
The Cougar men will be back in action Saturday, September 14 when they face Gillette College in another home match at 3:30 p.m. at Landers Soccer Complex.