The Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer team captured its third straight victory to move to 3-0 in conference with a hard-fought win over Lamar Community College on Saturday, topping the Lopes 2-0.

The win moved the Cougars to 3-0 in conference action after topping Northeastern Junior College 3-1 and then beating Central Wyoming College the week before 3-1

Saturday’s win was one where Region IX Freshman of the Year Rodrigo Cercal scored twice and the defense played strong to get the win.

Sophomore Rennan Sousa said the team played differently than in the win Friday against NJC.

“First of all, we made a change in our behavior, putting much more energy than in the other games,” he said. “Also, we were able to keep our focus the entire game, which helped us to score the second goal on Friday and maintained the advantage (on Saturday).”

It didn’t take WNCC long to get a chance to score as less than five minutes into the game, Cercal took a pass and maneuvered inside the box and was fouled to set up a penalty kick. Cercal, who is automatic from the PK circle, had a rare miss.

WNCC kept peppering the goal as minutes later, the Cougars had three straight corner kicks but couldn’t convert on any of the chances. Finally, the Cougars found the back of the net as Cercal took a pass from Matheus Nascimento with 24:35 to play in the half for the 1-0 lead.

Neither team scored the rest of the half.

The second half saw Cercal scoring his second of the contest as with 10 minutes of the half, Cercal took a pass from Rennan Sousa and scored to make it 2-0.

After that, because of a strong defense by Lamar and a late rain shower during the last 15 minutes of the game, neither team scored again.

WNCC clearly outshot the Lopes as the Cougars had 23 shots while Lamar had just two. Cercal had seven shots in the game while Sousa had four.

WNCC won the corner kick battle 9-5.

WNCC goalkeeper Hernan Burdiles had just one save in net.

WNCC, 3-3 on the season, will be back in action this weekend when they play their final two regular season home contests before hitting the road the rest of the season. WNCC will play Casper College on Friday and then Northwest College on Saturday. Both men’s contests will begin at 3:30 p.m. or following the women’s contests.

WNCC women shutout Lamar 4-0

               The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team put Friday’s heat-breaking 1-0 overtime loss behind them as the Cougars scored four times to blank Lamar Community College 4-0 in a conference contest Saturday at the Landers Soccer Complex.

                WNCC’s Yasmin Rojas said the difference between Friday’s loss and Saturday’s win was they played not as fast.

                “The difference between today’s (Saturday) and Friday’s game was we downgraded our level of speed,” Rojas said. “We played at their game speed.”

                That was key because WNCC dominated play, out-shooting Lamar 28-1.

                “I honestly think we played a decent game, but I know our team could’ve beat them by a lot,” Rojas said. “We were not working hard enough to do that, but this team has the talent and the speed for it.”

                The Cougars got on the scoreboard in the first 15 minutes of the contest when Lesley Vasquez took a pass from Aileen Perez and scored for the 1-0 lead.

                Perez scored the second goal seven minutes when the freshman from Denver drove into the box and was fouled, setting up the penalty kick. When Perez lined up for the penalty kick, she easily made it into the back of the net for the 2-0 lead.

                WNCC had three more good opportunities to add to the first half lead, but missed, including a penalty kick by Sara Rebecca Lourenco as they led 2-0 at half.

                The second half saw the Cougars score two more goals as Andrea Jimenez scored off a Vasquez assist 21 minutes in the 66th minute to make it 3-0.

                Then, with 17:06 to play, Lourenco made up for the missed penalty kick as she took a pass from Cali Wright and squarely found the back of the net.

                That was all the Cougars needed as they captured their second conference win of the season.

                WNCC had 28 shots on goal to just one for Lamar. Vasquez each had five shots each had five shots while Lourenco had four shots. Vanessa Vasquez and Perez each had three shots, while Debora Lopes and Vicky Granda each had two.

                WNCC also had 10 corner kicks to zero for Lamar.

                WNCC will be back in action next weekend for their final two home matches of the season before they finish out the season on the road when they face Casper College on Friday and Northwest College on Saturday. Both contests start at 1 p.m. at Landers Soccer Complex.