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On Friday in Rock Springs WY the Rattlers of Otero Junior College and Western Wyoming Mustangs continued their new Region IX rivalry. The weather was cold, wet and windy but that did not stop the match from heating up into a classic Region IX match for these two teams. Otero got the board early with a nice throw in to a OJC forward who made a move and the WWCC defender slipped in trying to follow. The OJC player nicely placed the ball past Taylor Whetman the WWCC keeper in the 4th minute. The teams were playing pretty good and even soccer when Otero scored their second goal of the half in the 30th minute. Western was doing a good job of possessing the ball in the midfield but could not seem to get a lot of chances on the Rattler net as they only mustered 2 shots in the first half.
The Mustangs regrouped at the half and executed their game plan very well in the second half. However OJC was the first on the scoreboard in the second half when they scored in the 58th minute to take a 3 – 0 lead. The Mustangs never said die and scored in the 60th minute when Braxton Hamilton slipped a pass Miguel Maca who scored his team leading seventh goal of the season. However, the Rattlers were not shaken as they answered with another goal in the 61st minute to extend their lead to 4 – 1 with less than thirty minutes to play. The Mustangs dug deep down inside and found a way to get back in the match. In the 71st minute Gilbert Gonzalez scored off of an Angel Muniz assist to cut the lead to 2. A penalty kick was convert for the Mustangs in the 83rd minute when a Braxton Hamilton was fouled during a corner kick and Angel Muniz kicked a great penalty kick past the Rattler keeper. With just 7 minutes to play the score was OJC 4 – WWCC 3. Two minutes later the speed of the Rattler forwards found space again behind the Mustang defense and netted their 5th goal of the match. Not to ever think they were out of the match WWCC score one more goal in the 90th minute. The goal was from Jorge Chacon and assisted by Angel Muniz. There was not enough time left in the match for another WWCC chance on goal, but WWCC can hold their heads high playing so well against the Region IX leaders. The loss does mean that the WWCC mens team will finish 5th in the Region and also signifies that they will not participate in the 2010 Region IX tournament as only the top 4 Region finishers will attend the tournament.
Game Stats - Shots; WWCC 11, OJC 19 - Assists; WWCC 3, OJC 4 - Cards; WWCC 3, OJC 1 - Free Kicks; WWCC 5, OJC 8 - Keeper Saves; WWCC 10, OJC 2 - Corners; WWCC 6, OJC 4
Workhorse of the Match; Angel Muniz – Angel scored a penalty kick goal and assisted on 2 of the other goals in the match.
Up Next for the Mustangs – Friday October 15th versus North Idaho College at 5:00pm in Rock Springs WY.
