Your future, our focus
Northwest College men’s and women’s soccer coach Rob Hill was even unhappy with his teams’ lone victory of the weekend.
The Trapper women fell 1-0 to No. 5 Otero on Friday, and the men blew a three-goal lead before claiming a 4-3 win in overtime.
The women and men followed those outings with 5-2 and 5-1 losses, respectively, to Trinidad on Saturday.
While Hill was impressed with the NWC women’s effort against Otero, he was disappointed with missed opportunities that could have possibly secured an upset.
Amberly Halstead missed on a chance from five yards out, and in the second half, Taylor Wilde ‘panicked,’ Hill said, on a chance with an open Otero goal.
“Despite the loss, it was still a solid performance by our girls,” Hill said. “If we put chances away, it would’ve been a different story.”
Keeper Taylor Meeks made five saves for NWC.
The Trapper men overpowered Otero early, using a free kick from Sean McManamon, and McManamon’s assist to Javier Sanchez to build a 2-0 halftime lead. In the second half, Jeremiah Gagnone played a deflection from an Otero defender for another score that signaled a blowout, but the Rattlers soon came to life.
Near the 25th minute, Trapper goal Erik Wehse committed a penalty that Hill believed shifted the momentum in favor of Otero. The Rattlers proceeded to score two quick goals before adding the tying tally in the 81st minute.
“Going into the second half, there was little to say to my men except ‘Keep going,’” Hill said. “But once that penalty happened, everything changed and it was like we were fighting for our lives despite being ahead.”
NWC played Otero to a stalemate in the first overtime before McManamon dribbled down the left side and fired the winning goal in the second OT. Despite finding victory, Hill was disappointed with how the Trappers got there.
“The win was good for the crowd, not so good for us,” he said. “We played the most complete first half of soccer we’ve ever played, but something changed in the second half, and it wasn’t good.”
Against Trinidad, Hill expressed total frustration with the work ethic from both of his teams.
The NWC women feel behind early, facing a 2-0 hole in the first three minutes of play. Gabby Gonzales pulled the Trappers with 2-1 on assist from Wilde in the fourth minute, and added an assist on Guadalupe Leyva’s tying goal in the 39th, but Hill was unhappy with the start.
“We couldn’t have had a worse start if we tried,” he said. “We just didn’t seem ready to play.”
Trinidad collected three second-half goals to secure the win.
“We had opportunities in the second half to take advantage, but we didn’t and Trinidad did,” Hill added. “It came down to a lack of work ethic and work rate. We didn’t bring it Saturday.”
Hill was equally disappointed with the performance from the Trapper men, who allowed Trinidad to build a 4-0 lead in the first half. Marco Guttierez put the Trappers on the board with a header near the 55th minute, but the NWC defense conceded another Trinidad goal to account for the final score.
“Again, we just weren’t ready to play,” Hill said. “We didn’t fight back like we should’ve ... we played lackadaisical defense.“It was so poor ... nobody wanted to be there. It seemed like the men were happy with the performance from the day before and that was that.”
Both Trapper squads will attempt to recover this weekend as the NWC men (3-2) take on Laramie County Community College (at Cheyenne) at 1:30 p.m. Friday before a 2 p.m. match with Western Nebraska Community College (at Scottsbluff, Neb.) on Saturday. The Lady Trappers (1-4) will face Laramie County at 4 p.m. and Nebraska CC at noon.