CHEYENNE, WY – The Laramie County Community College men's soccer team picked up a 3-1 win in the Region IX opener against Central Wyoming College on Friday afternoon thanks to a strong defensive performance and early offense.
"It definitely feels good and I give all the credit to the guys for coming out and proving themselves," Head Coach Fernando Perez said. "I never give up on them and they did awesome today and they deserve it."
The match started off with the Golden Eagles (1-3, 1-0) looking to take the momentum early as they assaulted the goal and put pressure on the Rustlers, eventually breaking through in the 26th minutes with a free kick from Azael Marrufo to Jonathan Ruvalcaba to open the scoring.
That would be the limit of the scoring in the first half with physical play being the story for the final nine minutes of the half when four yellow cards would be handed out to the two sides.
The second half was much more of a contest of wills than the first and LCCC again fired the opening salvo in the 55th minute from Gael Hernandez off of another assist from Marrufo who set a career-high for assists in a game with two.
"It feels really good," Marrufo said of getting his fellow Golden Eagles involved. "I love playing with my teammates. I saw where I had to play them and I played them, and we got the result."
A third goal might have been the best of the day for both teams when Alan Flores was given a pass from Yussuf Adan and blistered it to the top right corner from 18 yards out to make it 3-0 LCCC with 19 minutes remaining.
"I think they were definitely more hungry to get the goals," Perez said. "I think we realized it's our job to do it and they did it well."
Central Wyoming did answer with a quick goal one minute later from Dorrian Penner but that would be the final action from CWC in the match as they dropped to 2-7 on the year.
For Laramie County, the offense was able to set a season high in shots with 19 in the match, eleven of which were on goal. Adan Herrera was challenged with five shots on goal and only allowed the late strike to pick up the first collegiate win of his career.
Defensive backs Ruvalcaba and Brandon Young were lights out in their positions and Perez was quick to exalt their play as freshman in the back line.
"As freshman coming in and playing our region which is a tough region, they have done a phenomenal job to protect the goals and be a solid back four with Ryan, Yussuf, and Cesar," Perez said, adding that they were the only freshman of those five on the back line.
There is not time to rest for the Golden Eagles as they pick up another match Saturday when they face off against Northwest College who are coming off of a 6-1 defeat at the hands of Western Nebraska. Match time is scheduled for 1:00 pm and it is Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day, with free burgers and hot dogs being served by the LCCC coaching staff and athletes starting at 12:30 pm.
"We will definitely take all the positives from today and move on to tomorrow," Perez said.
More information can be found at www.golccc.com.