Your future, our focus
The Northwest College soccer teams won three of four games during a weekend road trip to Idaho. The Trapper men defeated North Idaho by a 4-1 final count on Friday before upping the margin to 5-1 over the University of Idaho club team.
The Trapper men are now 6-1-1 this soccer season.
The Trapper women fell for the second time in as many meetings to No. 14 North Idaho, this time by a 4-1 final count. The team rebounded the next day to paste the University of Idaho club team by a 6-1 margin. Northwest’s women’s team is now 6-2 on the year.
Adrian Elicerio got the Trappers off to a solid start against North Idaho on Friday. The Frostproof, Fla., sophomore took a feed from freshman Dean Johnson and buried it in net in the 19th minute to put Northwest on top.
North Idaho answered in the 38th minute, leaving the game deadlocked at 1-1 going into intermission. Once play began in the second half, it didn’t take long for Northwest to go back in front.
Leonardo Mederios added to an already-impressive goal count for the season with the go-ahead score from Matheus Santos. The goal came just three minutes after the resumption of play.
The Trappers nursed their one-goal advantage throughout much of the rest of the half. Finally, the team broke through for a late insurance goal as Helio Junior scored unassisted in the 80th minute. Nine minutes later, Elicerio struck again to give the game its final score.
Against the University of Idaho, the Trappers fell behind on a goal in the 13th minute, but the team didn’t stay down long. Shane Scrivner scored just seconds later after taking a feed from Dean Johnson to score.
Ten minutes later, Scrivner got an opportunity to be on the scoring end of the shot, depositing a Mederios pass into net for the go-ahead score. The pair reversed roles, allowing Mederios to get in the goal column just before intermission.
Junior and Alan DaCosta each scored before the midway point of the second half to produce the rest of the scoring.
For the Trapper women’s team, the weekend began with the team once again being plagued by a slow start against North Idaho.
“We struggled in the first half when we played,” said women’s interim coach Kaylin Olivas.
“We finally picked it up, but it’s hard to come back against a team like that when you give up the lead.”
The Trappers were playing catch-up pretty much the whole way. North Idaho scored just four minutes into the contest, then added a second goal in the 18th minute for a 2-0 halftime edge.
Two minutes into the second half, Northwest was again victimized by a fast score.
Cody freshman Lindsey Neiters finally got NWC on the scoreboard in the 70th minute. Samiha Simao sent a hard shot onto goal that was deflected by the North Idaho keeper, only to fall at the feet of a hustling Neiters, who one-touched it into net.
North Idaho added a goal with seven minutes remaining to give the game its final score.
“It’s all about playing 90 minutes, and we just didn’t get the job done in that game,” said Olivas.
Saturday’s game against North Idaho took a far different tone. The Trappers got on the board fast and furious, thanks to a first-half hat trick from Simao.
Kaitlyn Smith, making a rare start in goal in place of Morgon Cox, helped set up the Trappers’ first goal with a punt from the goal box. Simao ran onto the ball, which bounded behind the Idaho defense, and won the ensuing one-on-one against the Vandals’ keeper in the 18th minute. Simao struck again in the 29th minute as Christine Silverstone dribbled the ball to the end line and then cut a pass back across the box. Simao rifled a shot over the head of the keeper for a 2-0 NWC lead.
The hat trick was completed three minutes later as Neiters centered the ball at the top of the box for Simao, who buried the 18-yard shot into net. The hat trick left the Trappers up 3-0 at intermission.
The University of Idaho carved into that gap with a goal in the 47th minute, but the Trappers were able to eventually wear down the club team. Silverstone ran onto a ball from Marena Quint in the 65th minute and beat a diving keeper with a one-touch shot inside the post.
Powell’s Katie Kipp scored in the 77th minute off an assist from Sydney Heckel. Heckel scored the Trappers’ final goal unassisted in the 82nd minute, smoking a shot into the net from the top of the box.
“It was good to see us finishing and finding the net,” Olivas said of the win, which improved Northwest’s record to 6-2 for the women’s soccer season.
Both Trapper teams host Western Nebraska on Wednesday for Region IX games. The Trapper women play at 10 a.m. The Trapper men will follow with the start time listed for approximately noon.
Northwest swept games from Western Nebraska earlier this season when the two schools met in Nebraska.