CHEYENNE, WY – It was a great way to open up the Region IX home slate for the #16 Laramie County Community College men's soccer team as they hosted the Gillette College Pronghorns on Friday afternoon to the tune of a 3-0 win for their fourth straight on the year.
"Overall, the win was great," Head Men's Soccer Coach Fernando Perez said. "I think we started off slow in the first half but eventually we found our rhythm and who we are and we got the result we wanted."
It took some time for the offense to find its groove until a surge forward from Cooper Johnson on a pass from Jonathan Ruvalcaba netted the opening goal on a less than routine shot when Johnson flicked a ball over the keeper and into the net in the 38th minute.
"The through ball just kind of worked out," Johnson remembered. "I made sure I was onside and ran through a one v one with the goalie. The ball was kind of bobbling, but I saw the goalie was coming out to charge me, so I flicked it right over his head, walked it in, and celebrated with my boys in the corner."
LCCC took the 1-0 lead into the halftime break.
Just five minutes into the second half, Johnson and Ruvalcaba connected again, this time on a corner kick that Johnson sailed into the box for a diving Ruvalcaba header to double the LCCC advantage.
"It's good to see goals come from all different areas and angles just because everyone can do it," Perez said.
The assist was already the third of the season for Johnson who has seven total points for the team to lead the roster, but that isn't a surprise from the LCCC forward.
"I always expect the highest of myself," Johnson said. "My family back home expects this as well so I'm just living up to a standard that comes from my own mouth, and we just expect the best."
The Golden Eagles added a third goal in the 88th minute to ice the game when Angel Avila-Sandoval connected on a goal after a corner kick from Nicholas Marmolejo.
The win was aided by a good game in net from Luke Hyatt who completed his second clean sheet of the season with five saves on the day. The LCCC defense played great as a whole, only surrendering nine total shots in the game compared to 22 taken by the Golden Eagles.
Up next, they face off against #11 Casper College who enter Saturday's game with something to prove after dropping a 4-1 contest at Western Nebraska on Friday. Johnson said the team needs to enter the game just focusing on what they can do.
"It's not focusing on the numbers next to the team's name. When we went to New York we played two ranked teams, but we saw it as we had nothing to lose, and we were going to give everything we had."
Kickoff is at 1:00 pm on Saturday afternoon and more information can be found at www.golccc.com.