Andrea Jimenez scored two goals and the Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team earned a 4-2 win over Northwest College Friday afternoon at the Landers Soccer Complex.

                Ashley Ruiz, who scored the fourth goal of the game off a Jimenez assist, said they played alright.

                “I feel like we did pretty good. It was just we fell a little pressure, but after awhile we were able to put it back together and finish strong,” Ruiz said. “We could have done better, but I feel like we did good.”

                The first half saw the two teams score just once. That was a Jimenez pass to Destiny Mueller who booted the ball into the back of the net with 32:21 left in the half. After that, WNCC had six great opportunities to score again, but couldn’t get the ball into the net.

                The second half was much better for the Cougars offensively, where they scored three times. It didn’t take long for the Cougars to go up 2-0 as Mueller dished an assist to Jimenez with 36:34 to play for the 2-0 lead. Then, with 22 minutes left in the contest, Jimenez had her second goal with an assist from Leticia Modesto for a 3-0 lead.

                The Cougars couldn’t hold on for the shutout as the Trappers scored with 16:31 to play on a goal from Alexa Williams with 16:31 to play. Four minutes later, Northwest sliced the lead to a single goal as Kierra Cutright scored with 12:45 to play.

                WNCC kept playing strong and added an insurance goal with 6:45 to play as Jimenez dished a pass to Ruiz and found the back of the net for the 4-2 lead.

                Ruiz said they played a lot better in the second half.

                “We did play a lot better in the second half,” she said. “I feel like we played a little bit more connected and we were able to connect more.”

                WNCC had 29 shots in the contest compared to just 13 for Northwest. WNCC had 13 shots in the first half unofficially.

                WNCC won the corner kick battle 5-2.

                WNCC goalkeeper Ana Von Ruden had 13 saves in net.

                WNCC will be back in action Sunday when they host Trinidad State Junior College in a women’s and men’s doubleheader. The Cougars will then head to Cheyenne, Wyoming, to face Laramie County Community College in a conference contest. WNCC was slated to host LCCC on Wednesday, but since the earlier game with LCCC was postponed, they need to go to LCCC to make up that postponed contest.

                Ruiz said they need to stay connected to beat Trinidad State.

                “Sunday we just have to play harder and stay connected,” she said. “We just need to get balls into the net.”

WNCC men fall to Northwest 3-2

The Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer team gave up two early goals and then came back and played strong the rest of the way before surrendering a 3-2 defeat to Northwest College Friday afternoon at Landers Soccer Complex.

                Northwest scored two goals in the first six minutes of the match, both by Haruki Yamazaki for a quick 2-0 lead. After that, the Cougar defense played strong the rest of the way.

                WNCC defensive player Jerry Escamilla of Scottsbluff said they played OK but they can’t give up early goals.

                “We started off pretty slow,” he said. “We picked it up and came back but then we couldn’t finish out the game.”

                Those two early goals were the difference in the contest, too.

                “[Putting those two goals behind us] really got the momentum on our side,” Escamilla said. “Once we got that, we were ready to go for the win but we just quite couldn’t finish it out.”

                After Northwest’s two goals, WNCC sliced the lead in half when Luiz Martinez scored as he chipped the ball in for a pretty easy goal with 12:26 left in the half. The game stayed that way until halftime.

                WNCC kept playing strong in the second half, tying the match at 2-2 just 13 minutes into the half when Washington Junior fed Saugat Rai with a pass and Rai planted the ball into the back of the net to tie things.

                The two squads kept going back and forth and it seemed that the two teams might have an overtime contest. But Northwest had different ideas as Tumekie Blackwood scored to put the Trappers up 3-2 with 17:50 to play.

                The shots were too few for both teams Northwest finished with 10 shots while WNCC had two. Northwest also had nine corner kicks while WNCC had just one.

                WNCC goal keeper Imanal Munoz had seven saves in net.

                WNCC will be back in action Sunday when they host Trinidad State Junior College at 3 p.m. following the women’s game. WNCC will then wrap up the regular season when they host Casper College on Friday.

                The Cougars were slated to play Laramie County Community College on Wednesday, but game was canceled as was the May 11 game with Northeastern Junior College. The women will still play Northeastern Junior College on May 11.

                Escamilla said the key against Trinidad is not starting slow.

                “We have to start quick,” he said. “We can’t let simple goals like that at the beginning happen. We just have to keep moving forward.”