The Western Nebraska Community College men's soccer team battled from a first-half deficit to capture a come-from-behind win over Central Wyoming College 5-3 in a Region IX conference game on Saturday at the Landers Soccer Complex.

                WNCC moves to 4-1-1 on the season but more importantly are 2-0 in conference play. The Cougars will have next weekend off and won't return to competitive action until September 22 and 23 when they travel to face Casper and Gillette College.

                WNCC head coach Todd Rasnic said the team played well after a slow start that saw WNCC trail 3-1 to the Rustlers.

                "We had a slow start, obviously. We just game out flat and didn't have the feet underneath us," Rasnic said. "This team (Central Wyoming) was well prepared and well coached. They came and did exactly what they needed to do to get on the board first. I have to hand it to our guys, we changed some tactical things at halftime, but other than that our guys stepped up. They played the way they have every game. I just don't like to see the second half in a game to win, but we will take it. It is a win and move on from here to see what happens."

                WNCC started the contest off fast as they scored the first goal of the contest just a minute into the match when Pablo Dominguez delivered a pass to Eduardo Oliveira for the goal.

                After that, Central Wyoming's Tanner Johnson took over as the freshman earned the hat trick by scoring three goals in 15 minutes of time.

                Johnson's first goal came just four minutes after WNCC scored to tie the match at 1-1. Johnson put the Rustlers up 2-1 two minutes later with another score. Central Wyoming went up 3-1 as Johnson hit a penalty kick with 23 minutes to play for the hat trick.

                WNCC kept playing hard, but missed on a couple prime scoring opportunities. Then, with 1:17 to play in the half, Maxime Niyibaho fed Jeronimo Zelaya Diaz with the ball and the freshman punched the ball into the net to bring the score to 3-2 and that that is where the teams went into halftime at.

                The second half was all WNCC as the Cougars scored three times from four different players. WNCC tied the match at 3-3 with 35:52 to play as Oliveira picked up an assist as he delivered a pass to Lucas Ovalle for the score.

                Four minutes later, WNCC took the lead as Abdoulie Fatty brought the ball up the field, moved to the inside and scored for the 4-3 lead.

                Both teams kept fighting and had shots to either tie the match or expand the lead. WNCC finally got an insurance goal with 4:51 to play as the duo that score the Cougar's first goal of the match hooked up again when Dominguez found Oliveira, who scored to make it 5-3.

                WNCC had 15 shots in the contest. WNCC won the corner kick battle with 10 corners to three for Central Wyoming.

                WNCC goalkeeper Hernan Burdiles had five saves in net.