NWC Men defeat Northeastern 4-1

The Northwest College women’s soccer team received the No. 2 seed in the four-school Region IX women’s soccer tournament this weekend in Rock Springs. The Trappers will open the tournament against Western Nebraska.

Should they win, they’ll play the winner of the Laramie County-Western Wyoming contest for the right to advance to district tournament play.

The Trappers aren’t carrying the momentum they’d hoped into that event, however. After defeating nationally ranked Laramie County by a 1-0 count last Wednesday, the Trappers wrapped up their regular season by dropping a pair of 1-0 games to two University of Colorado club teams in Boulder, Colo., over the weekend.

“We played their black team on Saturday and then their gold team on Sunday,” said Trapper head coach Kaylin Olivas. “They’ve got three club teams. The gold is their top squad and the black is their No. 2 team.”

The Trappers were plagued by similar problems in both contests. After surrendering goals to both teams within the first 10 minutes of play, the Trappers were unable to make the most of their opportunities.

“We probably gave up three really good scoring chances the entire weekend,” said Olivas. “Unfortunately, two of them went into goal. Meanwhile, we took six or seven shots on Sunday and sent them all straight at the keeper. We had three breakaway opportunities on Saturday and somehow missed the net on all of them. We had a lot of chances.”

In fact, the Trappers’ first-year coach said her squad outplayed both club teams.

“It all comes down to finishing the opportunties you get,” she said. “They finished theirs. We didn’t.”

The losses drop the Trappers’ record to 10-5 overall this season. They had no effect on the team’s post-season seeding, which was determined prior to the team leaving for Boulder.

The Trappers face Western Nebraska in a noon game this Friday in Rock Springs. Although the team has won both its previous games against Western Nebraska, prevailing 1-0 at home and winning 2-0 n the road. Olivas notes the squad didn’t played its best in either showing.

“I don’t know what it is about Western Nebraska,” said Olivas. “We haven’t played our best in the two previous games. I don’t think they’ve seen the way Northwest College truly plays yet.”

She expects that to change once the ball is touched in play this Friday.

“We’re at that point where there are no more games if you lose,” said Olivas. “I think the girls are ready to go. They’re going to fight for it because it is single elimination. Anything can happen so you have to be ready to play from the first whistle.”

For the most part, the Trappers will go with what got them to this point in the season. While Olivas isn’t ruling out minor position switches to help the team better match up against whoever they face, she says wholesale strategy changes are out of the question.

“I don’t see us changing much,” she said. “The biggest thing is just keeping everybody ready to go. We have to play our game and put our actions on the field.”

The Trapper men began Region IX play on Wednesday with a play-in game against Northeastern at Trapper Field. Legofi Crawford scored twice while Cesar Canales and Alan Da Costa added a goal apiece to give Northwest its third win in a 10-day span against Northeastern, 4-1.

The Trapper men, now 13-4-1, play Laramie County Community College at 4 p.m. on Friday in a Region IX semifinal at Rock Springs. Both Region IX championship games take place Saturday, also in Rock Springs.