WOMEN'S SOCCER LOCKS UP POSTSEASON BERTH

BY SETH ROMSA TRIBUNE SPORTS WRITER
Courtesy of the Powell Tribune

The Northwest College women's soccer team did what it needed on the final day of the regular season, finishing on a high after a convincing 7-0 victory over Central Wyoming College on Saturday.    

NORTHWEST 7, CENTRAL WYOMING 0

After wrapping up the home campaign earlier in the week the Trappers (10-7 overall, 6-4 Region IX) set out for Riverton to take on the Rustlers (3-12-2 overall, 2-6-2 Region IX).

Northwest jumped on the front foot early, when Miranda Acacia Williams scored five minutes into the contest.

That was quickly followed by a Pressly Taylor goal just three minutes later to give the Trappers a 2-0 advantage inside the first 10 minutes.

Autumn Wilson was the next player to get on the scoresheet for Northwest, scoring 26 minutes into the game to make it 3-0.

That lead held for the Trappers going into halftime.

"The first half was just slow," coach Rob Hill said. "We were able to get a lot of balls in behind, their line was very high. It was a bit slow and lethargic but what they were trying to do was the right thing in terms of breaking them down, we just asked them to play faster."

In the second half, Abby Derbyshire found the net to make it four, and Aubrey Cooper scored just after to make it 5-0 with five different Trappers scoring.

Wilson was the first repeat goalscorer, and Abigail Allen capped off a seven goal match to give Northwest a commanding 7-0 lead.

The Trappers cruised the rest of the second half to secure the win.

Audette Rodolph and Anina Gut combined for the shutout for the Trappers, the first for the team this season.

"It was a fair result," Hill said. "It was good to get some other people on the scoresheet. Getting a clean sheet and not conceding was a big positive."    

POSTSEASON ROAD TRIP
Northwest had already secured a spot in the postseason and was locked in to the No. 5 seed after all the other results had played out.

That means Northwest will head on one of the longest road trips of the season once again this weekend, making the trip to Pueblo, Colorado, instead of La Junta, Colorado, to take on Otero Junior College (9-2-1 overall, 7-2-1 Region IX), who is the No. 4 seed in the conference. The match will be played at Colorado State University Pueblo instead of in La Junta.

Northwest will look to avenge a 6-0 defeat at the hands of the Rattlers on Sept. 30 in La Junta.

"Last time we had one of our worst performances," Hill said. "After that game they were a little shellshocked they were outplayed and beaten. We learned some big lessons from that."

The winner of that game will head to Casper the following weekend, to face the top seed in Region IX.

In the other semifinal, the No. 6 seed Western Nebraska will travel to Cheyenne to take on the No. 3 seed Laramie County Community College.

The winner of that match will head to Rock Springs to take on Western Wyoming next weekend.

After the semifinals, the highest seeded team will host the Region IX championship on the weekend of Nov. 4-5.