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On Wednesday night in La Junta CO the Rattlers of Otero Junior College and the Mustangs of Western Wyoming played in a classic Region IX match for supremacy of the region. The match was played with high wind gusts to one end of the field and the Mustangs had the wind at their back for the first 45 minutes. Even with the wind advantage the Rattlers were able to score first in the 14th minute when a long through ball was found at a OJC player’s foot towards the top left of the box and kicked past the WWCC keeper Cory Thibeault. The Mustangs answered quickly to even the score at 1 goal a piece in the 16th minute. Jarom Stuart headed a ball into the area in front of the goal and Angel Muniz was able to kick it in. The Mustangs had a lot more chances in the 1st half but did not capitalize on the wind and went into the halftime tied with the #10 NJCAA team.
The second half the Mustangs knew they would have to face the wind and a good team, they knew they would have to play some solid defense to keep the Rattlers off of the board. The Mustangs were able throughout the second half to have some offense even though they had the wind in their face. However in the 65th minute of the match the Rattlers kicked a ball into the WWCC box that took a funny bounce from the turf and wind and their players blasted it into the net. The Mustangs nearly tied the match when Andrew Newbold hit a long cross towards the net but was saved by the fingertips of the OJC keeper. With minutes to play in the match the Mustangs took a gamble and subbed off a defender to add another forward to try to tie the match. The gamble did not pay off as the now outnumbered defenders were beaten and the Rattlers scored an insurance goal in the 88th minute of play. The Mustangs did continue to push and try to score with the remaining time left but were not able to get a score in the time remaining. The loss drops the Mustangs to a 9 – 5 – 0 record overall and a 4 – 4 – 0 record in Region IX. The Mustangs sit in the 4th seed spot for Region IX with a week and a half to go in regular season Region IX play.
Match Facts: Shots; WWCC 12, OJC 14 - Assists; WWCC 1, OJC 3 - Cards; WWCC 0, OJC 3 - Free Kicks; WWCC 11, OJC 7 - Keeper Saves; WWCC 6, OJC 6- Corners; WWCC 5, OJC 3
Mustang Man of the Match: Jarom Stuart – Not only did Jarom have the assist for the Mustangs but also won almost every header that he challenged for.
Up Next for the Mustangs; Saturday October 8th versus North Idaho College in Couer d’ Alene ID at 5:00pm
