It has been 21 years since the Western Nebraska Community College men's soccer team captured a Region IX championship.
On Saturday, the Cougars scored two second-half goals and went on to down Otero College 2-0 in the championship match at Landers Soccer Complex. The win sends the Cougars to the NJCAA national tournament in Wichita, Kansas, which starts November 17 and runs until the 23rd.
WNCC is the first team to punch their ticket to the national tournament. The other regions/districts still have to play. The national tournament seedings will be announced at 11 a.m. MST on November 12. Nationals are made up of the eight district/region champions and four at-large teams.
For coach Todd Rasnic it is his first with the men's program since he took over in 2005. The Cougar women won a regional title in 2008. But, this is the first time WNCC will be at nationals as the other times the Cougars had to go through a district final. Not this year, though.
Rasnic was one happy coach after the game and with under two minutes left in the match, it could be seen as he went down the line of his bench players giving them a high five and hugs.
"I have been at the school for a long time and this has been an event for me that eluded me in winning the Region IX championship and getting a chance to compete at nationals. So, needless to say, I am over the moon happy with what happened here today," Rasnic said. "I would be remised if I didn't take the time and say that I give 99 percent of the credit to Eseah Ingram, my assistant coach. He has done an excellent job of connecting with the players this year and spends countless hours watching game video and breaking games down and the nitty-gritty work. The players did it. With all that being said, we are super excited that we won and get a chance to compete at nationals."
Ingram, who used to play for Rasnic and is now the assistant coach, was humbled to see his players celebrate the victory. The players even lifted Ingram up and tossed him in the air in a celebratory salute to their assistant and winning regionals.
"This means everything. We haven't won a Region IX title since 2003 and if my math is correct, 21 years ago," he said. "We were in position a couple of times, we were the number one seed a couple of times, and today we made history so it means everything to us. We are enjoying the moment and enjoy the game over the weekend and come next week our focus is on nationals."
Ingram, a Scottsbluff High graduate that went on to play soccer at Shaw University, said the players bought in to what they were doing all season.
"This is special right now. For me I am blessed that Coach Rasnic come in and trusted in what I was doing and I am happy that the boys bought in to know what we were doing in the long hard season. We knew that if we played our game, we could compete with anybody. Today, we endured the pressure and got a little luck in some aspects and when our chances happened, we put it in the back of the net."
Rasnic said it was a very competitive match against a talented Otero squad that were unlucky on some of their shots and WNCC get lucky on their shots.
"It was a tale of two halves," Rasnic said. They came out strong. I kind of assumed that the pace they were playing they wouldn't be able to keep the pace as hard as they were playing. I just literally felt like we paced ourselves correctly without taking our foot off the gas. We were attacking for 90 minutes and I think that paid off for us in the end. We are grateful and we are looking for the opportunity to go to Wichita in a couple weeks."
The luck that Ingram was talking about was the ball bouncing the Cougars way as Otero had three shots early in the first half that hit the side or upper poles and bounced back into the field of play. One Otero shot hit the left pole and then hit the right pole and then came back to the left and out of play. That is how close the Rattlers were to scoring. If those shots wouldn't have caromed off, the Rattlers might have been up 3-0 early.
WNCC goalkeeper Owen Henderson, a freshman from Greeley, Colorado, said the defense helped win the game for them and games are won with a little luck.
"The first half was kind of scary, but no one wins without a little bit of luck," Henderson said. "After we scored the first one, we locked it down for 40-plus minutes and then we scored a second one and we locked it down even better. Our defense was really good. After we scored that second goal, I think we had all that momentum and it pushed us to defend and we locked down. We knew that after the next 30 minutes we would be able to hold that trophy a little."
For Henderson, he bought in to what the coaches told him during his recruiting trip and now he gets to savior the national tournament.
"When I first came on my visit here, Eseah told me I was a collegiate-level player and that we were going to make some noise this year. He stuck with his word. I trusted him the whole way and I trusted my teammates and everything we did was together," Henderson said. "It just feels amazing that it all paid off."
The first half saw both teams have plenty of shots and unofficially, Otero had five key shots in the half, including a couple that the kicks were like field goals in football. WNCC had two good shots in the first 15 minutes as well, but shots by Eduardo Oliveira and Maxime Niyibaho went wide. The score at halftime was scoreless.
The second half saw the Cougars come out ready. Just two minutes in, a shot went wide. A minute later, the Cougars put together a nice run and a pass by Oliveira to Niyibayo went into the net for the 1-0 lead.
Otero came back and had five shots that went high, some were like kicking a field goal or they just missed from corner kicks or free kicks that Henderson made saves on.
With 16:34 to play, WNCC scored an insurance goal when Lucas Ovalle set up for a free kick. His kick was on target and went into the net for the score.
After that, Otero kept trying to get a goal to come back but each time the Cougar defense thwarted the shots from going into the net in some fashion.
While the Cougars are the first team to punch their ticket, Henderson said, it is time to get back to work.
"I think nationals will be fun and exciting. I have never imagined to be able to do that," he said. "When Eseah told me that we were going to make noise this year, I am honestly speechless about nationals. I don't know what to expect but it is amazing I am doing this my freshman year and I want to try to do this again next year, too."