Snow soccer starts strong for men’s, women’s teams

 

By Matt Harris

Staff writer

Sept. 7, 2017

 

SCOTTSBLUFF, Nebraska—The Snow College men’s soccer team started the season in the win column by rallying their way to two convincing wins last weekend.

After getting down 1-0 early on in a road game against Western Nebraska Community College, the Badgers quickly turned the tide and never looked back en route to a 3-1 victory. The next day, they faced off against Northeastern Junior College and won again, 3-2.

Freshmen led the way against a talented Western Nebraska team after the Cougars scored the first goal of the match in less than five minutes. Freshman James Peña led the rally by scoring two unassisted goals at 22 minutes and 30 minutes, giving the Badgers the lead back. Freshman Kade Jorgensen followed up with another unassisted goal at 40 minutes to put the Cougars away.

The Badgers next played Northeastern in a back-and-forth affair that saw all its action in the second half.

After a scoreless 50 minutes of playing time, freshman Diogo Soares netted the first goal off an assist from sophomore Luis Miguel in the 51st minute, to which the Plainsmen responded in kind with a goal of their own 11 minutes later. At 67minutes, Miguel once again engineered the assist, this time to fellow sophomore Sam Bamberlister.

Northeastern wasn’t giving up, scoring in the 73rd minute to tie the game a second time. In the 79th minute, Jorgensen proved clutch by being the final scorer once again, this time when it mattered. The freshman scored the winning goal off an assist by fellow freshman Jaydon Humphries.

The Badgers began the season not in the NJCAA top 20, but did receive top-20 votes in the preseason poll. In their second season of existence, Snow will be looking to claim the SWAC title that they almost had last year, but lost during the second round of the championship tourney.

This year, the Badgers sport a diverse roster, with roughly a third of their players coming from overseas; there are three British players, one German player, one Portuguese player, one Guatemalan player, and five Brazilian players.

“We have a lot of players with great potential this year,” said Snow’s head soccer coach, Nuno Gourgel. “It’s too early to single out specific players to watch for.”

Snow was on the road against Western Wyoming on Tuesday (score in next issue), and will be in Arizona to face Yavapai College on Saturday.

 

Women’s

 

 

SCOTTSBLUFF, Nebraska—Snow College women’s soccer began the season ranked No. 17 in the nation in only their second season, but last weekend they played like even that impressive ranking was too low.

The Lady Badgers played their first two games of the season on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 1 and 2. The first dominated Western Nebraska 9-0, then tromped Northeastern 12-1, to begin their season 2-0.

“We have a goal of focusing on consistency this year,” head coach Nuno Gourgel said. “We are building on a great first-year program and we want to improve even more this season.”

The team, comprised almost entirely of Utah natives, outclassed their opponents, scoring nine of goals against Western Nebraska in just the first half of play.

Cheyenne Jacobs led with the first goal of the game at 3 minutes. Among seven different scorers for Snow, Fairview native and North Sanpete graduate Angela Clayton scored two goals, at 14 minutes and 38minutes.

Against Northeastern, the Plainswomen surprisingly got the first goal of the match in only two minutes of action with an assisted goal getting past the Lady Badgers’ All-American goalkeeper, sophomore Hanna Johnson. The response to that lone goal became utter annihilation as Snow scored an astounding eight goals in 45 minutes of play.

Once again, seven different Lady Badgers found the net over the course of the match, and once again, Clayton had a field day, singlehandedly scoring the last three goals of the game for a hat trick in just the second game of her freshman year.

This season, the Lady Badgers look to defend their SWAC title, and national polls already see the Lady Badgers as the top dog in the conference this year.

They played Western Wyoming on Tuesday (score next issue), and host a friendly match against Ottowa University on Friday.