SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. -  The Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer team wrapped up the regular season Saturday in suffering a 3-0 weather-shortened contest to Northwest College at Landers Soccer Complex.
The Cougars finish the regular season at 3-6-5 overall and 3-4-2 in conference play.
WNCC will now wait until after next weekend to see if they make the playoffs. Currently, the Cougars are sitting in sixth place and the top six teams make the post-season. There is a chance the Cougars could move up to fifth if the right teams win next weekend.
The Region IX playoffs begin October 18 with the third through sixth seeds facing each other with the top two seeds getting a bye.
WNCC head coach Eseah Ingram said it wasn’t the team’s best performance on the pitch Saturday.
“I thought it was disappointing. To be honest, I believe we came ready to play just lost composure at times and the result ended badly,” he said. “In the end, it’s on me as a coach to be better and I was not at my best today and my team followed my instructions and it led to a tough loss. Tough to have a performance like that on sophomore day, but hopeful we are able to get another chance to play. This is a talented team and I believe in them with all I’ve got. I promise everyone if we get another chance, we will be ready and we will compete to win the region again.”
The early part of the match was a battle as neither team had a lot of shots and there was plenty of good defense. Northwest scored first with 21:29 left in the half when Shay Lonergan scored on a nice play from teammate Sora Taenaka to make it 109.
The Trappers added a second goal in the 42nd minute when Lonergan scored his second goal, this time from an assist from Axel Lopez to make it 2-0.
WNCC had a chance to get on the scoreboard just 30 seconds after Northwest scored, but their freekick went wide. Then, a big turning point with no time on the clock when WNCC was issued a red card and they had to play the second half a man down.
The second half was played tough as WNCC came out and had a nice chance to score when Tomoaki Kamiya took a shot that just went high just four minutes into the second half.
A few minutes later, Alvaro Abeal, one of the eight sophomores that was recognized before the game, had a free kick but the Cougars couldn’t get anything from it.
Northwest made it 3-0 when Oziel Adrian Escobedo scored in the 57th minute off an assist from Lonergan.
WNCC kept fighting despite a man down when they had a free kick that wouldn’t go in. Later, Anthony Leumus, another sophomore that was recognized before the game, had a shot and the rebound went to Kamiya who missed.
WNCC later had a corner kick as the skies started to darken with an storm coming in and the Cougars couldn’t capitalize.
The match was stopped with about 22 minutes to play when lightning was detected five miles away and then the rain game and the teams decided to call the contest.
WNCC had nine shots in the contest while Northwest had seven shots. Abeal led the Cougars with four shots, two of which were on goal.
Owen Henderson, a sophomore, was in goal and had three saves in net.
Besides Abeal, Lemus, and Henderson, the other five sophomores recognized before the game was Tomas Guzman, Yediel Hernandez, Mederique Eboucle, Brady Smallwood, and Jeff Laguerre.

WNCC women’s soccer falls to Northwest on Saturday

The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team managed 11 shots on Saturday against Northwest College, but the Cougars couldn’t get any in the net as the Trappers registered a 4-0 conference win.
The Cougars fell to 3-11 overall and 2-7 in conference play as they have one match left on their schedule when they host Western Wyoming Community College Friday at 1:30 p.m. It will also be sophomore recognition day for the ladies as they will wrap up the season.
Saturday, the Cougars fell behind Northwest early as the Trappers scored on an own goal with 6:51 gone in the contest.
After that the two teams played tough until the Trappers Nayelli Aguayo scored with 27:41 gone in the contest to make it 2-0. WNCC had plenty of chances to score in the first half including a free kick a minute after the Trappers scored which went high.
Northwest also had a couple shots that missed, including two shots within the box when one was saved and then the rebound hit the top bar.
WNCC’s Amanda Duarte also missed on a couple shots as well in the first half, where Northwest led at half 2-0.
The second half saw Northwest score just eight minutes into the contest when Elliasen Lewis scored to make it 3-0. The game stayed tight after that with neither team scoring despite both teams getting shots. Northwest made it 4-0 as Lewis scored her second goal in the 82nd minute for the 4-0 lead.
Northwest had 14 shots in the contest while WNCC had 11. Julia Santos had three shots to lead the team.
Rory Weitzenegger started the game in goal for the Cougars and gave up two goals with three saves. Marit Schelstraete was in goal in the second half and had four shots and two saves.

WNCC volleyball team tops Trinidad, Otero over the weekend

The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team moved into sole second-place in the Region IX South conference standings after taking two games from Trinidad State College on Friday and then Otero College on Saturday on the road.
On Friday, WNCC had three players with double figure kills led by Kyana Gabriel with 13 kills in posting the 5-set win. The scores were 17-25, 25-21, 12-25, 25-21, 15-13.
WNCC followed that up with a 4-set win over Otero in capturing the 25-20, 17-25, 25-17, 25-16 win.
WNCC will look to stay in second place in the standings when they host two conference games this week. North Platte Community College comes to Cougar Palace on Tuesday for a 6 p.m. contest. Then Southeast Community College visits Cougar Palace on Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest.
Friday’s match was a barn-burner which was played at Trinidad State College’s tough gymnasium. WNCC captured the fourth set to force a fifth game. In the fifth, Trinidad took a 4-2 lead and led 8-6. WNCC came back and made it 8-7 on a point by Alex Gonzalez-Orozco.
WNCC tied the game at 10-10 after two points from Natalia Nowak. Trinidad led 13-10 when the Cougars got the serve back on a missed serve. Dani Cruz followed suit as she served four straight points to give the Cougars the 15-13 win.
WNCC was led by Gabriel and Cruz with double-doubles. Gabriel had 13 kills and 14 digs while Cruz had 11 kills and 10 digs. Keira Zelada pounded down 10 kills while Nadiyyah Northern had five kills. Emma Hergenreder finished with 13 digs, two kills, and two assists, while Gonzalez-Orozco had 20 digs with five set assists. Nowak had 25 set assists with seven digs while Allie Twamley had eight set assists and 10 digs and three solo blocks.
In the win over Otero, WNCC hit .291 for the game with 53 kills while Otero hit .189 with 39 kills. WNCC had a balanced hitting attack with five players with eight or more kills. No one player had double-figure kills. Zelada and Maria Niedzwiecka led the team with nine kills each. Zelada also had three digs while Niedzwiecka had five aces. Cruz, Northern, and Gabriel all had eight kills, while Eli Braithwaite had four kills.
Also for the Cougars, Gonzalez-Orozco had 22 digs and two aces; Cruz had 13 digs; Gabriel had 11 digs; Nowak had 33 set assists with seven digs; Twamley had 11 set assists with three kills; and Hergenreder had four digs and two kills.