RIVERTON, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer team took care of business and with their 3-2 win over Central Wyoming College Saturday afternoon in Riverton, Wyoming, the Cougars claimed the conference championship outright.
                With the win, the Cougars earned the No. 1 seed in the Region IX playoffs that begin next week with first-round matches. WNCC and Casper College, the No. 1 and 2 seeds earned first-round byes and will host the semifinals on October 26. The finals are slated for November 2 and WNCC could host as well.
                The win moves the Cougars to 8-4-2 on the season and 7-1-1 in conference play. Casper is second in the conference with a 6-2-1 record. The next four teams in the conference will play in the first round as Northwest and Otero will host either Laramie County Community College or Central Wyoming College.
                Saturday’s regular season final was a battle to the final minute. The two teams settled for a 1-1 tie at halftime. WNCC scored first as Isrrael Rodriquez fed Eduardo Oliveira with a pass and the Cougar’s leading goal scorer stuck it into the back of the net in the 15th minutes.
                Five minutes later, Central Wyoming’s Tanner Johnson hit a penalty kick to knot things up.
                Five minutes into the second half, Yediel Hernandez scored an unassisted goal to put the Cougars up 2-1. It didn’t last long as Central Wyoming tied it at 2-2 on a Samir Siqueira goal.
                WNCC got the winning goal in the 76th minute when Oliveira picked up an assist after giving Lucas Ovalle a nice ball and the sophomore nailed the ball in the back of the net.
                Both teams had nine shots in the contest.
                WNCC’s Owen Henderson had four saves in net.
 
WNCC women fall to Central Wyoming
 
                RIVERTON, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team saw their season come to an end after falling 2-1 to Central Wyoming College in Riverton, Wyoming.
                WNCC finished eighth with 10 points in the conference standings and the top six teams make the post-season tourney. The Cougars finished the season at 3-11-1 and were 3-6-1 in conference play.
                The six teams that made the playoffs included Casper and Western Wyoming will get the byes as the top two teams. The other four teams -- Northwest, Laramie County, Gillette, and Otero -- will play next weekend in first-round games.
                The WNCC and Central Wyoming contest was competitive and the excitement started early as Cougar goalkeeper Emily Villagomez, who had 34 saves in net for the game, made diving save on a penalty kick in the first 10 minutes of the contest.
                All the scoring happened in the first half. Central Wyoming bolted to a 2-0 lead as Kristen Moss scored in the 13th minute and then Rakiya King scored in the 21st minute.
                WNCC cut the deficit in half when Yasmin Urbina scored off a free kick in the 29th minute and that is where the teams stood at halftime.
                The second half saw no scoring.
                Central Wyoming had 42 shots in the contest while WNCC managed just three. Mariah Russel had two and Urbina had the other goal.
                The Cougars will saw goodbye to nine sophomores from this season including Emily Villagomez, Lizbeth Barrera, Jade Brothwell, Valentina Mejia-Cuaeva, Alejandra Rodriguez, Ashley Villagomes, Stephanie Villagomez, Yasmin Urbina, and Ariel Veliz.
                The Cougars have a good group of freshmen that will return that saw plenty of action.