CHEYENNE, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College men’s and women’s soccer teams competed hard against the ranked Laramie County Community College teams, but fell in the doubleheader in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Wednesday.

                The Cougar men took a 1-0 lead over No. 7 LCCC, but then gave up two late first half goals and allowed another three in the second half in falling 5-1. LCCC moves to 10-1-1 on the season while the Cougar men fall to 5-4-2.

                The Cougar women competed well against No. 14 LCCC, trailing the ranked team 1-0 at halftime before falling 3-1 to the Golden Eagles. LCCC moved to 10-2 on the season while the Cougars dropped to 2-9-1 on the season.

                WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said the women competed really hard against LCCC and actually out-played the Golden Eagles in the second half.

                “The girls played a lot better in the game,” Rasnic said. “We outplayed them a lot in the second half.”

                Rasnic believes the game might have been different if there was another 10 minutes in the contest for the women’s contest.

                “I think the game would of looked a little different if it would have been 10 minutes longer,” Rasnic said.

                The two teams battled hard in the first half as the Golden Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the first half on a goal by Delaney Knottmenus. That is where the score stayed at halftime.

                LCCC added another two goals in the second half to grab a 3-0 lead.

                That was when the Cougars offense heated up. Jackie Valenciano scored for the Cougars with 20 minutes to play off an Ana Caroline Lopes assist to avoid the shutout.

                WNCC scored again later as Raquel Ferreira scored a header off a corner kick, but the goal was disallowed because of an offsides call.

                WNCC had nine shots in the contest with four on frame. Lopes had two shots on frame while Valenxiano and Vanessa Vasquez each had one goal on frame.

                Litzi Delarosa was in net for the second straight game allowing three goals and getting three saves. Delarosa is usually a midfielder but has been called into duty after a season-ending injury to their starting goalkeeper.

                The men’s contest was a battle in the first half as the Cougars took the early lead when Yael Armenta scored off an assist from Paul Cerros in the 35th minute.

                WNCC couldn’t hold the lead as the Golden Eagles finally broke through with two minutes to play in the first half as Jared Ramos scored off a cross by Daniel Barajas in the 44th minutes.

                The Golden Eagles took the lead just a minute later when Roger Ibarra danced around the goalkeeper and put the ball in the empty net, giving the Golden Eagles a 2-1 lead with just 10 seconds remaining in the half. 

                The second half became all LCCC as Noe Ortiz-Pena stole a pass put the ball in the net at the near post, pushing the lead to 3-1 in the 52nd minute. LCCC added another goal 12 minutes later to increase the lead to 4-1 when Omar Castruita scored.

                The final goal came in the 87th minute on a penalty kick as Barajas scored for the final score of the contest.

                The shots weren’t even close in the contest. LCCC had 31 shots in the 90 minutes with 14 on frame while WNCC had just one shot in the game and that was the goal by Armenta.

                LCCC finished with six corner kicks to zero for WNCC.

                WNCC will have one day to relax before they head to Casper, Wyoming to take on Casper College on Friday. The Cougars will then wrap up the regular season with road games on Oct. 15 and 16 when they travel to face Northwest College on Friday and Central Wyoming College on Saturday.