POWELL, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College men's and women's soccer teams picked up Region IX wins over Northwest College Saturday afternoon in Powell, Wyo.

            Lawan Abary scored four goals in lifting the Cougar men to their second win of the season with a 6-3 win over the Trappers from Northwest.

            The Cougar women received two goals from Courtney Nelson and the WNCC women offset Friday's loss to Gillette in prevailing 3-1 over Northwest.

            WNCC coach Todd Rasnic was pleased with how both teams fought, coming back from deficits to get the victories.

            "The women went down 1-0 in the first half and fought their way back through a lot of adversity to finish the game 3-1 on two great goals by Courtney Nelson and one goal by Brittany Hunsley," he said. "The men also found themselves in a 3-2 deficit at halftime then battled back in the second half and took the game over. The men found the net four times in the second half to win the game 6-3. Lawan Abary doubled his goal scoring totals netting four goals for the Cougars."

            Both games were intense contests especially in the second half when the Cougars opened up the offense.

            The men's contest was an offensive contest in the first half and then in the second half the Cougars defense tightened up with the offense heating up even more.

            Northwest grabbed a 3-2 lead at intermission. The Trappers scored the first goal just 10 minutes into the second half. WNCC didn't waste any time after the Trappers scored, netting their first goal 90 seconds later after Silvio Xavier delivered the ball to Abary who blasted in a long shot.

            The Cougars went up 2-1 just 10 minutes later as Xavier found Abary for his second goal of the half.

            Northwest came back to grab the halftime lead, scoring with 22 minutes left and then netting the go-ahead goal with 8:37 to play.

            The second half was all WNCC as Leonardo Palomo tied the game with 20 minutes to play. WNCC heated up in the final 10 minutes, scoring three goals. Abary scored two of the goals, netting one with 8:44 to play off an assist from Andrew Matzuda and then getting his fourth goal with 2:30 to play off an assist from Ade Oshikoya. Xavier scored the other goal off an assist from Ramses Atahualpa.

            The Cougar women trailed 1-0 after Northwest's Holly Burley scored just 15 minutes into the game. After that, the Cougar defense stepped up in shutting out the Trappers.

            WNCC started their scoring late in the first half. With 13 minutes to play in the opening half, Nelson blasted in a long shot that found the back of the net to knot the score.

            WNCC went up in the first half with two minutes to play when Julia Stratford delivered the ball to Brittney Hunsley who buried another long shot for the 2-1 halftime lead.

            The Cougars added an insurance goal 11 minutes into the second half when Bianca Gomez fired the ball to Nelson who buried the shot for her second goal of the game.

            The Cougar women had 10 shots on goal. Allison Parker and Jordyn Rivera each spent a half in net.

            The WNCC men and women will be back in action next weekend when they host a pair of games. WNCC will face Snow College on Friday and then Northeast Community College out of Norfolk on Saturday.