Scottsbluff’s Adryana Rodriguez scored two goals and the Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team showed potential in a weekend scrimmage Saturday when the White team defeated the Pink team 4-1 in two 25-minute halves.

“We played good for the first time together, but there is areas we need to work on,” Rodriquez said. “The offense worked fairly well together. There is a lot of depth and finished well together, but still needs perfected in areas.”

The White team wasted little time in scoring as Julia Santos scored just a minute into the game for the 1-0 lead. At the 15:50 mark of the first half, Rodriquez scored her first goal to make it 2-0 off an assist from Audrey Gosvener.

Five minutes into the second half, Rodriguez scored her second goal off another assist from Gosvener to make it 3-0. The White team went up 4-0 with three minutes to play when Danae Montalvo scored.

The Pink team finally scored with under 15 seconds to play as Allison Herbel fed former Cougar Bethany Fuchs with the ball and the Cougar alumni scored.

Rodriquez said this was a good indication of what they need to work on, but the potential is there. Besides the offense, she saw good things with the defense and midfield.

“We have lots of talented girls on defense. However, we just need to work on communication and staying together,” she said. “Our midfield has a lot of potential. Marit (Schelstraete) and Julia work very well together to move the ball up.”

The Cougar women are off until they open the season August 22 and 23 in Ephraim, Utah, when they face Northwest College and Yavapai College.

“I am very excited to see what this season is going to bring,” Rodriquez said. “Once we clamed down and played simple, we found combination passes brought us more success.”

The Cougars first home match of the season is slated for September 19 and 20 when they host Otero College and Trinidad State College.

WNCC men’s soccer looked solid in first inter-squad scrimmage

Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer coach Eseah Ingram loved what he saw for the first competition of the season during the Navy/Gold scrimmage on Saturday.

The scrimmage, itself, saw two evenly-matched teams as the Gold took a 3-0 lead before the Navy scored the final three games of the match to tie things at 3-3.

“Scrimmage was solid, saw a lot of good things but also saw some things I believe we need to improve on,” Ingram said. “We’re connecting early right now and today, in moments, it showed. We must continue to keep working and strive to get better every single day.”

Saturday’s scrimmage was a good first-match of the season as the team will have a big scrimmage match against Garden City Community College on Wednesday on the road in Kansas.

Then, the Cougars will open the season Thursday, August 21 when they face Salt Lake Community College in Ephraim, Utah, followed by Snow College on August 23. Salt Lake was a national tournament qualifying team last fall.

“The work we need before Wednesday is more so of our fitness and just structural things regarding our build-up play and defensive principles,” Ingram said. “But we are looking solid right now and Wednesday’s game will be a good test for us at Garden City is a solid side from a solid conference."

 The depth the Cougars showed Saturday was evident on both the offensive and defensive side.

“Our depth is impressive, the level is all the same or higher with any rotation or substitution,” Ingram said. “I saw that we are a team that can play my style of futbol but can also adapt into other play styles if necessary. Today (Saturday) I also saw our level of competitiveness and never give up attitude and energy. Like I said, we are clicking well right now and I’m excited to see how much we improve in due time.”

The scrimmage was just 1-0 had halftime as the Gold got a goal on a penalty kick from Robert Connolly with 11:36 to play in the opening half.

Connolly came back and immediately scored his second goal less than a minute into the second half to make it 2-0 and the Gold went up 3-0 on another goal by Alvaro Abeal.

The Navy came back and had back-to-back goals from Aurele Cuenot and Anthony Lemus with 26 and 24 minutes to play. The Navy tied the game with 18 minutes to play on goal by Bonheur Kitongo.

Both teams had opportunities to score in the final 10 minutes, but the three goal-keepers did a good job of keeping the ball out of the net.

WNCC men’s soccer ranked 18th in preseason poll

The Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer team received some good news on Monday after the NJCAA released its pre-season poll on Monday.

The Cougar men, who competed at the national tournament last fall, earned the 18th seed for the upcoming season.

Eseah Ingram, WNCC head coach, said while the ranking is nice, it is more for the players, program, and the community.

“With all due respect, to be honest with you, it really doesn’t mean anything,” Ingram said. “Yes, the recognition is appreciated but we went all season last year with no ranking and found a way to win the Region and District and get to nationals. I can clarify my answer by saying the ranking proves nothing, but we still have everything to prove.”

Ingram said being ranked means they have to keep working hard to prove they belong in there and focusing on one match at a time.

“We must train, prepare, and play like we are a top 20 team in the country and there is no excuse,” the first-year head coach, who served as the assistant WNCC coach a year ago, said. “Every day we must rise to the occasion and the standard and find a way to get even better. I believe we have the right squad to do so and I’m very excited to continue to grow with this team and see where the season takes us. My players are ready."

Iowa Western Community College is the pre-season No. 1 team while Indian Hills Community College is No. 2. WNCC played both teams a year ago. Iowa Western is the defending national champions.

The Cougars will also open the season August 21 and 23 against two ranked teams as they travel to Utah to play No. 9 Salt Lake Community College and No. 17 Snow College. WNCC played Snow College last year as well.

WNCC will have a scrimmage on Wednesday when they travel to Garden City Community College in Kansas and then have a week to get ready for the season opener the following week.