DENVER – The Western Nebraska Community College men's soccer team ended it's record-setting season in falling to Northeastern Junior College 1-0 in the semifinals of the Region IX soccer tournament in Denver on Friday.

                The Cougar men, who set a record for most wins in a season with 12, entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed. Unfortunately for the Cougars, they just couldn't get a goal in the back of a net against a NJC squad that has won eight straight.

                The Plainsmen will face Otero Junior College for the Region IX title Saturday afternoon. Otero upended Trinidad 4-3.

                Despite the loss, WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said his team had a good season.

                "Obviously I thought the season was fantastic," Rasnic said. "The guys did an excellent job. They overcame a lot of adversity over the season which we dealt with really well. The team obviously was a good team as they set some new records with most goals and wins in a season. Overall I was pleased with their season."

                Despite the great season, Rasnic said they just couldn't punch the ball into the back of the net.

                "I thought we let ourselves down a little bit in this last game," he said. "We had more quality opportunities to score than our opponent. But, it was just one of those days where we couldn't find the back of the net. We found the back of the net 56 times during the regular season, got to the playoffs and found the net five times in our first-round game (against Northwest) and, for some reason for the second time this season, got shut out."

                Rasnic gave NJC plenty of credit in the way they shut the Cougar, high-scoring offense down.

                "Give NJC some credit; they did a good job of figuring out our strengths," he said. "They put some quality defense together to work against our top-scoring players and shut them down and made them less dangerous. Those players still got opportunities to shoot; we just didn't have it in the tank to finish."

                The match was scoreless at halftime. NJC netted the only goal of the game just seven minutes into the second half when Joseph Godoy scored to make it 1-0.

                Despite the early second-half goal, WNCC had plenty of chances to score after that.

                "We had a couple shots late," Rasnic said. "Silvio hit a shot late where any other day or game would have been an easy goal, but their goalkeeper swallowed it up."

                WNCC had 19 shots compared to 18 for NJC. Silvio Xavier had seven shots, three of which were on goal. Lawan Abary had three shots, two of which were on goal.

                WNCC goalkeeper Juan Garfio, of Minatare, had 12 saves in net for WNCC.

                WNCC loses a lot of sophomores, but return plenty of freshmen talent. Rasnic said he is hoping to build on this year's 12-7 season.

                "We are looking to build on this freshmen group," he said. "We had a number of starting freshmen this year, so the outlook looks good for next year. Hopefully, we will bounce back strong next season and be as strong as we were this year."