The Western Nebraska Community College men's and women's soccer teams found the scoring a little rough on the pitch in Region IX action against Laramie County Community College Friday at the Landers Soccer Complex.
LCCC's Rafael Munoz and Alex Espinoza each had two goals the Golden Eagle men registered a 4-0 win over the Cougar men. It was the Cougars second straight scoreless defeat.
The Cougar women had plenty of scoring opportunities, but in the then end the LCCC women, who earned votes in this week's national poll, received two goals from Megan Campbell to register the 5-0 win.
The women's contest was pretty competitive as LCCC outshot the Cougars 12-10. The difference in the contest was missed opportunities for the Cougar women.
"We did play hard but we missed opportunities," sophomore Chelsey Keefer of Sandy, Utah, said. "We are going to work hard this next week and hopefully get some wins next weekend."
WNCC's scoring chances were plentiful, especially early on. WNCC's Kennedy Lawes, who nailed two goals on Wednesday against Western Wyoming, missed two chances. The best chance of a WNCC goal came on a free kick by Jesse Michel that bounced over the head of the goalkeeper and almost into the net.
That potential goal by Michel would have knotted the score at 1-1, after LCCC's Erin Elder scored off an assist from Shauni Griffiths with 19:50 to play. Instead, shortly after the miss, LCCC's Griffiths scored an assisted goal for the 2-0 halftime lead.
LCCC quickly struck with a third goal as Campbell scored off an assist from Gabby Garcia just two minutes in to make it 3-0.
Four minutes later, LCCC scored again as Jemma House scored off an assist from Campbell for a 4-0 lead.
Play went back and forth for the next 27 minutes. That was when Campbell netted her second goal of the night off an assist from House for the 5-0 lead.
While the score would indicate a one-sided match, it was definitely a lot closer. LCCC outshot WNCC 12-10 and had four corner kicks to WNCC's 2. More impressive, the physical battle resulted in no yellow cards being issued between the two teams as both squads played a good, clean match.
Keefer said the team can take plenty from this game as they enter two crucial matches next week at Trinidad State and Otero Junior College.
"We just have to step up and keep working hard in the 1v1 battles and we should be OK," she said. "We need to keep high pressure on and pass to feet next weekend."
The Cougar men also had a competitive game, missing on plenty of scoring chances. LCCC outshot the Cougar men 11-6, but took control of the match in the first half with three goals. The Golden Eagles struck first as Espinoza scored just two minutes into the match off an assist from Munoz.
WNCC nearly tied the match in the 11th minute on a penalty kick. But the kick by Ibrahim Meite was saved by the goalkeeper and rebounded out. Meite had another shot to score but missed.
After that miss, LCCC took the counter attack and Mario Garcia fed Munoz with the ball, who drove 3/4 of the field, moved into the goal and scored for the 2-0 lead.
LCCC added a third goal with 9:10 to play in the opening half as Munoz scored his second goal off an assist from Jorge Rangel for the 3-0 halftime lead.
Both squads went back and forth to open the second half. Finally, with 15 minutes to play, LCCC scored off a WNCC corner kick. LCCC's Caleb Rondon kicked the ball upfield and found Espinoza who outran the Cougar defender, going one-on-one with the goalkeeper before chipping the ball over the head for the score.
One of WNCC's best scoring chances came with four minutes to play as Tyler Robinson too a pass off a corner kick and just missed inches high of scoring.
WNCC managed just six shots on foal compared to 11 for LCCC. Each team had four corner kicks.
Both Cougar squads will return to action next weekend when they travel to Trinidad State on Friday and then Otero on Saturday for Region IX contests.