SCOTTSBLUFF -  The Western Nebraska Community College women’s and men’s soccer teams dropped Region IX contests to Central Wyoming College on Friday at Landers Soccer Complex.
The Cougar women hung tough with Central Wyoming as the two teams were tied at 1-1 at halftime, but in the end the Rustlers earned the 3-1 win.
On the men’s side, Central Wyoming scored one second-half goal and then thwarted several scoring chances by WNCC late to earn the 1-0 win.
WNCC will be back in action Saturday when they host Northwest College at Landers Complex. The women kick off at 1:30 p.m. while the men will kick off at 4 p.m. The men’s contest is their final regular season match and it will be sophomore recognition for them. The women will wrap up the regular season next week Friday when they host Western Wyoming Community College and that will be the women’s sophomore recognition day.
As for Friday, the Cougar women knew they could compete with Central Wyoming and gave it their best shot. Allison Herbel, who scored the only goal for the Cougars on the day, said they played as hard as they could, but just couldn’t get the shots to go into the net.
“We knew that we could compete and win this game,” the Gering graduate said. “It just came down to our composure close to goal. We kept our heads up shot after shot so that helped us.”
It was a contest where the Cougars had 16 shots while Central Wyoming had 10 shots.
“Overall, we did really good with possession and staying calm,” she said. “We have the ability and talent to finish games. We just need to finish our shots.”
Central Wyoming scored first as Bailey Brown took a pass from Claire Giles to score just 15 minutes into the game. WNCC tied the contest on a goal by Herbel in the 31st minute and that is where it stook at halftime.
Central Wyoming went in front in the 60th minute when Brown got her second goal of the night and then Lacey Gunnels added an insurance goal in the 88th minute for the 3-1 lead.
WNCC was led by Herbel with three shots while Camilla Emanuelle de Souza had two shots.
Feline Groenwold had eight saves in net for the Cougars.
As for the men’s contest, it was a battle to the end. The first half saw neither team really getting any good shots. WNCC had a chance to score with 20 minutes to play when Aurele Cuenot hit a shot that hit the lower pole and didn’t go in. Later, with 15 minutes to play in the half, Alvaro Abeal had a shot that wouldn’t to in as the two teams were tied at 0-0 at halftime.
The second half saw the Rustlers get on the board with 27 minutes left in the match when Drake Terra scored off a free kick with assists from Davide Daveri and Josh Brownwell to make it 1-0.
WNCC kept fighting as Alvaro had a free kick with 5:34 to play and just missed high. WNCC had a couple corner kicks but couldn’t make due. With 1:18 to play, WNCC had another free kick and the shot went right to the Central Wyoming goalkeeper for the save.