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NWC Men Take Down No. 15 Otero
Northwest College drilled No. 15 Otero 3-1 in men’s soccer action in the latest installment of the budding rivalry between the two teams. Northwest and Otero have met in each of the last two Region IX title games, splitting the results.
On Friday, the Trappers were clearly the better team. Dakota Dragoo assisted on goals by Jamie McMorrow and Kevin Fekete while Dean Johnson opened the scoring on a feed from Devin Farnes as NWC charged to a 3-0 lead before surrendering a token goal on a free kick with less than three minutes remaining in the contest.
“I’m disappointed that we conceded a goal and didn’t hold on to the clean sheet,” said Trapper head coach Rob Hill. “We seem to struggle doing that this season. Other than that, I thought we had an excellent performance against Otero.”
The Trappers continued their hot play through the weekend with a 4-1 victory over first-year opponent Trinidad State. McMorrow was good for a pair of goals in the contest. Jake Ombach and Caleb Romsa each added strikes as well to account for the scoring as Northwest scored twice in each half. Similar to the previous day, the Trappers surrendered a free-kick goal, this time at the 60-minute mark, to miss out on a shutout.
Assists in the game came from Ombach, Dragoo, Devin Farnes and Colton Strong.
“We didn’t play with quite the same speed we did against Otero to begin,” said Hill. “But the last 10-15 minutes of the first half we picked it up and did a better job and were able to score a pair of goals and finally get some momentum. We finally looked like a team.”
With the wins, the Trappers improved to 7-3 overall this season, the team is now 3-1 in Region IX play.
“If we can keep playing at this level, I don’t see why we can’t win the Region,” said Hill. “We definitely raised our level of play this past week. We had a good crowd that supported us. It was nice for them to get to see us playing at that level.”
In women’s action, the Trappers received a first-half hat trick from Samhia Simao as part of a 5-1 victory over Trinidad State. The game came 24 hours after the team was blanked by Otero by a 3-0 count.
“We played very good team soccer on Saturday,” said Trapper coach Kaylin Olivas. “On Friday, we were playing selfish and individually. Nobody was making runs to support, we were trying to do too much as individuals. It was probably our worst game of the season in that regard.”
Simao scored on a pair of goals and a penalty kick in the first half to help the Trapper women open a big 3-1 halftime lead. Leeann Payne assisted on two of the three goals. Payne also got into the scoring act in the second half, scoring an unassisted goal. Cassidy Aguilar added a second-half goal for the Trappers.
“We finally got back to playing our style of soccer,” said Olivas, noting that style of play had abandoned the team for its previous two games. “I think after Friday, we realized we couldn’t play like individuals and have success. We have to be a team, and that definitely showed on Saturday. We supported each other well on and off the ball during that game. It was a beautiful game to watch with the movement and one and two-touch passing we were doing.”
The Trapper women now sit at 6-4 for the season. The team sports a level 2-2 record in Region IX play. With her Saturday hat trick, Simao tied her own school record with 15 goals this season. The sophomore who was recently named the national player of the week will look to break the mark later this week.
Both Northwest College soccer teams host Western Wyoming this Wednesday for their next action. The women’s game on Wednesday will be the final home action of the season for the Trapper women’s soccer program, which concludes the regular season with seven consecutive away games.
The men’s team will travel to Northeastern over the weekend as they complete their first circuit through Region IX opposition this season. Northeastern does not field a women’s soccer program, giving the Trapper women a weekend off.