The Western Nebraska Community College men's soccer team continues to shine on defense in recording another shutout, the team's third in four games, in posting a 5-0 win over Central Wyoming College on Saturday at Landers Soccer Complex.
WNCC earned the win with great defense and an offensive attack that blistered the net with shots all day.
Yael Armenta, who scored two goals in the second half, said it was nice to get another shutout.
"It [playing good defense] proves that we are a really good team," Armenta said. "[We need that] to keep winning."
Saturday's contest, however, was one of two halves. The Cougars didn't play their best in the first half as they only scored one goal. The second half was a totally different story.
"We really started bad," Armenta said. "But we caught up in the second half and made a comeback there."
WNCC's only goal in the first half, and really the only goal they needed, came with 24:03 left in the first half when Paul Cerros scored off an assist from Washington Alves for the 1-0 lead. That is the way the match stood entering halftime.
The second half was totally different for the Cougar men as they wasted little time in flexing their scoring potential. WNCC made it 2-0 when Rodrigo Cercal took a shot and the goalkeeper saved it but off the rebound, Saugat Rai found the ball and planted the ball firmly into the back of the net just five minutes into the half.
WNCC kept the offense going as they made it 3-0 with 31:25 to play when Cercal took a couple of shots and missed but stayed in the box and found the ball for a third time, this time sending the ball to the back of the net.
The shutout almost went away when Central Wyoming took a shot that was headed into the back of the net with 23 minutes left, but WNCC goalkeeper Imanal Munoz made a safe to preserve the shutout.
WNCC made it 4-0 with 14:27 when Armenta took a pass from Alves and put the ball into the net. It was a play that Alves crossed the ball to a racing Armenta as he was headed to the net and Alves hit Armenta in stride for the goal, avoiding the offsides call.
Armenta scored his second goal of the match with 3:27 to play as Rai delivered a pass to Armenta for the final goal of the match.
WNCC controlled the contest on offense with 29 shots, 20 of which were on frame. Central Wyoming had four shots. The Cougars also had six corner kicks to just one for the Rustlers.
Munoz had three saves in net.
WNCC, 4-0, will be back in action when they host Laramie County Community College on Wednesday. LCCC won the regional title last year and competed in the national tournament.