Rodrigo Cercal scored twice and the Western Nebraska Community College men's soccer team moved into the semifinals of the Region IX tournament with an impressive 3-0 win over Trinidad State College in the first round at Landers Soccer Complex Saturday afternoon.

                The Cougars, 8-5-2, will now face top-seed Laramie County Community College on Friday in the semifinals in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The finals are slated for Saturday in Cheyenne with the winner qualifying for the national tournament.

                Cercal, who was named the NJCAA Division I Soccer Player of the Week earlier this week for his six goals last weekend, said the team played well to get the win.

                "Today we played with the right mentality, the right confidence, and we played hard," Cercal of Brazil said. "We got the win and now we have to go a play against LCCC."

                WNCC has been playing well the last two weeks where they have outscored their opponents 11-2 in the last three soccer matches. Cercal said the key for this team playing well right now is heart.

                "Our mentality, our spirit, and we have friendships between us and that is why we have won three games in a row," he said. "Tomorrow, we have to stay focused on LCCC."

                For this men's team, they have been playing strong lately and they will be heading to the final four teams with a chance for a Region IX title. The last time the Cougar men have won a regional title was in the program's first year of playing in 2003. Cercal said this team will be ready for the semifinals.

                For Cercal, he has been the offensive weapon for the Cougars as he has scored eight of the team's 11 goals during the win streak. As much as Cercal has done most of the scoring, the win Saturday was a good team win as the defense recorded a shutout in the win and kept the Trojans offense at bay.

                "Our defense is one of the keys to our wins and they played really hard, strong, and solid" he said. "They gave us confidence to attack because they were good to cover us."

                The defense was huge for the Cougars as Trinidad State outshot WNCC 13-9. WNCC, however, made the most of their attempts putting three in the net. WNCC had seven shots on net of their nine total. Trinidad had seven shots on net in the loss.

                The Cougars offense started early as withing in the first three minutes of the match, WNCC had two key scoring opportunities but couldn't get the ball into the net. With five minutes gone in the match, Trinidad had a shot to score, but it went high.

                Three minutes later, Cercal put the Cougars on the board when he took a pass from Shoto Masuko and maneuvered for the first goal of the match for the 1-0 lead with 36:48 to play in the first half.

                Cercal almost had a second goal as he took another pass and was going for a breakaway and was fouled to avoid the one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

                After that Trinidad State had four shots at net, but a couple went wide and two were saved by WNCC goalkeeper Imanal Munoz. WNCC led at intermission 1-0.

                It didn't take long for the Cougars to strike in the second half as Renan Souza delivered a cross to Paul Cerros, who scored for the team's second goal.

                WNCC made it 3-0 with 17:17 left in the game when Rodrigo scored after taking a pass from Dante Rafaela for the 3-0 lead.

                The Cougars defense kept playing tough and was within two minutes of a shutout. That was when Trinidad's Romario Harding was awarded a penalty kick. But, the PK went wide and the Cougars went on to get the win.

                Munoz recorded seven saves in net for the Cougars. The Cougars also had four cornerkicks compared to just three for Trinidad.

                In other scores in the men's first round, LCCC defeated Central Wyoming 6-0, Otero knocked off Northeastern 3-2, and Casper beat Northwest 3-2.