WNCC women fall to Otero

               LA JUNTA, Colo. – The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team continued scoring goals in a 4-0 loss to Otero College on Friday in La Junta, Colorado, in a conference contest.

                The loss drops the Cougars to 4-4 in the conference while Otero moves to 7-0-1. WNCC will wrap up the regular season on Saturday when they travel to Trinidad State College.

                Friday’s contest saw Otero control the tempo in the first have as the Rattlers raced to a 2-0 lead on goals by Sheranda Charles and then Layla Garcia-Moreno.

                The second half saw WNCC play strong but Otero went up 3-0 on goal just five minutes into the half as Charles scored her second goal. Moments later, WNCC had an opportunity to score but Aileen Perez missed a penalty kick with 25 minutes to play.

                Otero added an insurance goal by Garcia-Moreno to make it 4-0.

                Otero outshot WNCC 17-7 with the Rattlers putting seven on goal while the Cougars had six on goal. Perez and Lesley Vasquez each had two shots on goal. Perez was 2-for-2 while Vasquez was 3-for-2.

                Summer Parnell had two saves in net for the Cougars.

                The WNCC women will be back in action Saturday when they head to Trinidad, Colorado, to face Trinidad State College in the last regular season game.

Cougar men fall to Otero

                LA JUNTA, Colo. – The Otero College and Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer teams are both fighting for a home playoff berth and Friday’s contest was key in deciding the top four teams to host a first-round playoff spot.

                Otero won the conference battle on Friday as the Rattlers captured the 6-1 lead on La Junta High School’s artificial football field. Otero moves to 5-1-1 in conference play while WNCC falls to 4-3 in conference play and drops to fifth in the conference standings.

                WNCC will wrap up the regular season against Trinidad State College Saturday afternoon. Trinidad State is 2-3-2 in conference play and 2-8-2 overall.

                Friday’s contest saw the Rattlers score the first two goals within the first 15 minutes. The first was scored by Bienevu Djunga and the second goal came from Souley Diof. WNCC sliced the lead in half as Rodrigo Cercal scored with 25 minutes to play in the opening half off an assist from Rennan Sousa that was a set piece and Cercal found the ball in the box and didn’t take long to plant it in the back of the net.

                WNCC kept playing strong but with 13 minutes left until halftime, Raphael Da Silva scored to make it 3-1. The Rattlers added another goal three minutes before intermission off of Diof’s second goal of the game.

                The second half saw Kai Sakata score just two minutes into the as the sophomore planted the penalty kick into the net. Otero added another goal as Diof scored the hat trick to make the final 6-1.

                Otero outshot WNCC 12-5 with WNCC just getting one shot on goal while Otero had 10 on goal.

                The Rattlers also had seven corner kicks to the Cougars one. Otero was also the more physical of the bunch with 21 fouls to just six for WNCC.