WICHITA, Kan. – The Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer team gave No. 2 Tyler Junior College all they could handle in the Cougars pool play match with the Apaches Sunday at the NJCAA national tournament in Wichita, Kansas.
                In the end, however, Tyler’s two first half goals was the difference as Tyler went on to earn the 3-1 win on Pool B play.
                The Cougars have one more pool play contest left when they face Indian Hills Community College Monday at 11:30 a.m. MST.  WNCC head coach Todd Rasnic said the game time and location could be changed because of the weather forecast of 1 to 2 inches of rain on Monday for Wichita. A win would keep the Cougars alive to win the pool depending what Tyler and Indian Hills do in their pool play match on Tuesday.
                WNCC head coach Todd Rasnic, who was presented with the District Coach of the Year award on Saturday, said the score doesn’t indicate how his team played.
                “I thought we came out a bit timid. I don’t think we were scared, we just had nerves and you are human,” Rasnic said. “Today we weren’t lucky. We missed a few of our opportunities and looking at the stats of the game, the shots and shot count and time of possession was in our favor by the end of the match. We just didn’t basically capitalize on our opportunities and finish the way we should have.”
                Those little jitters in the first half was the difference in the contest. Rasnic said they talked to the guys before the game and told them a mistake is a goal and that is how it works at the national tournament.
                “We made three mistakes today and they scored three goals,” he said. “We had chances. We hit the post several times. We had shots in front of the goal and they were saved. As far as I am concerned the run of play was in our favor, but it comes down to who puts the ball in the back of the net. We just didn’t do it today.”
                WNCC and Tyler had about the same shots in the contest. WNCC managed 11 shots with eight on goal while Tyler had 12 shots with just seven on goal.
                The Cougars were the victim of shots that missed the back of the net by inches, hitting the cross bar on the goal a couple of times.
                “We knew before we came here that we were able to beat any team in the country. It was evident today playing number two and just being unfortunate in front of goal,” Rasnic said. “I like the mindset the guys game out today and they can relax a bit more because they understand they can play with these teams. I think they were young there playing their first game ever in the national tournament and if we would have went out with the level of confidence we did in the second half, we would have won that game.”
                The Cougars were a little young playing in their first national tournament game in WNCC soccer history, but at the same time they still competed hard. WNCC had two early chances to score just 11 minutes into the game, but shots by Anthony Lemus and Alvaro Abeal were saved by Tyler goalie Alfred Mikkelsen.
                Tyler scored first with 19:03 to play when Carlo Romberg took a pass from Hagan Cupido and scored to make it 1-0.
                A few minutes later, WNCC had a shot hit the crossbar and go out of bounds. After that, they had two back-to-back corner kicks from that shot and could connect.
                Tyler made it 2-0 when Cupido scored an unassisted goal in the 36th minute. WNCC had a last second shot by Eduardo Oliveira that was saved with under a minute to play and that is where it stood at halftime
                The second half was a different story as WNCC came out ready to play. The Cougars sliced the deficit in half in the 64th minute when Guilherme Lindolfo sent a long pass to Lemus who found the ball and streaked a couple steps and fired the ball into the net to make it 2-1.
                Tyler scored one more time as Cupido scored his second goal of the game in the 74th minute to make it 3-1.
                The Cougars had a couple chances late when a shot by Lucas Ovalle was saved by the goalkeeper in the 82nd minute and then with a minute to play, Lemus hit the crossbar and the ball bounced out of bounds. Oliveira had a shot with five seconds to play that was also saved by the goalkeeper.
                Tyler had seven corner kicks in the contest to three for WNCC. Tyler also committed 15 fouls to just seven for the Cougars.
                WNCC goalkeeper Owen Henderson had four saves in et while Tyler’s goalkeeper had seven saves.
                Rasnic said they need to come ready to play Monday in the second pool play contest.
                “First of all, we have been the underdog all season and we are not supposed to be here, but we are here and we are competing well,” he said. “We just need to keep that same mindset (Monday). I think we have improved tremendously from day one until now and I think that might be the difference of how that game looks tomorrow.”
                In other games at the national tournament, Pool A saw No. 1 Iowa Western Community College down No. 12 Coastal Bend 2-0; Pool C saw No. 3 Salt Lake Community College and No. 10 Murray State earned a 0-0 tie in double overtime; and in Pool D, No. 4 Cowley College topped No. 9 Miami Dade 4-1.