STERLING, Colo. – The Western Nebraska Community College men's and women's soccer teams opened the season Saturday afternoon with different results.
The Cougar women received two goals from sophomore Tania Razo and the Cougar women earned a 3-3 tie with Iowa Lakes Community College. The Cougar men were knotted with Iowa Lakes at halftime before Iowa Lakes scored a goal in the second half for the 2-1 win.
The Cougar men will be back in action Monday at noon as they host Southeast Community College at the Landers Soccer Complex. The women were scheduled to play, but that match was canceled because Southeast didn't have enough players to field a team.
Aileen Perez, a sophomore from Colorado, said she thought the women's team played well in earning the tie in the season opener.
"I thought that we played very well for it being our first game as a team and not having the subs as our opponent did," she said. "I was honestly very happy with the way we played, of course there are many places where we need improvement which we will most definitely work on to help us become successful for our season, but overall I'm really proud of all the girls and super excited for the season."
The Cougar women went up 2-0 at halftime with two first-half goals. Razo scored first in the 29th minute off an assist from Sara Lourenco. Moments later Yasmin Urbina scored to make it 2-0 at intermission.
Iowa Lakes came back and scored three times in the second half to lead 3-2. Late in the game, WNCC scored to tie the game off Razo's second goal of the day. That is where the game ended.
Perez said when Iowa Lakes went in front, the team refocused to get the tying goal.
"The key for us to get that goal was to stay compacted and find the through balls for our forward Tania," she said. "We did really good in the first half shifting and moving the ball around and that is why we had the 2-0 lead. All though the second half we came back a little confident and lost that connection within one another and caused them to have the 3-2 lead. Luckily, towards the end, we attacked a little more, focused our passes strictly to our forward and we were able to find Tania and she finished it nicely with a 3-3."
WNCC had eight shots with five on goal, while Iowa Lakes had 10 shots with seven on frame.
WNCC won the corner kick battle 7-3. The Cougar goalkeeper Emily VillaGomez had three saves in net.
In the men's contest, the Cougars were tied with Iowa Lakes 1-1 at halftime. Iowa Lakes scored the opening goal before WNCC found the tying goal when Joao Menezas scored to send the game into halftime knotted at 1-1.
Iowa Lakes took the lead in the second on a goal by Lander Gonzales and held on for the win.
WNCC had seven shots with two on goal while Iowa Lakes had 14 shots with five on goal.
Hernan Burdiles had eight saves in net for the Cougars.