Snow soccer teams get mixed results on field
Matt Harris
Staff writer
10-20-2016
EPHRAIM—The Snow College Soccer teams are beginning to be more polarized in their experiences, with the women’s team enjoying continued success in year one, while the men’s team continues to be brought down to Earth.
The Lady Badgers are still undefeated after 14 matches with a record of 10-0-4 and are in first place in the Scenic West Athletic Conference.
“We’ve been working hard, playing physical and keeping a positive attitude,” team captain Rhyan Tafoya said. “That’s what we’ve been going for.”
Over the last week, the Lady Badgers played a struggling Colorado Northwestern Community College (CNCC) team, easily defeating them in an 8-0 blowout. Five different Badgers scored and freshmen Paula Ferrancini, Ashley Hall, and Madalyn Graham all had two goals apiece.
“They came out stronger than last time,” Tafoya said. “They had a very good attitude, and it was a fun game.”
Earlier this season, Snow had beaten CNCC 13-0 and 17-0.
After the easy win, Snow faced Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) on the road. Determined to get the evasive win against the Lady Bruins, the Lady Badgers gave their all, but still could not seal the victory. Instead, Salt Lake made it happen late in the game on a goal from Lady Bruin Jennifer Mendez in the 81st minute, causing the Badgers to settle for a third straight tie to Salt Lake.
The snow men’s soccer team has not been so fortunate lately, losing three of their last four matches.
Last week, the Badgers halted their losing streak with an easy win over fellow infant program CNCC, notching a 4-0 win over the Spartans. Four different scorers contributed for the Badgers.
Snow’s next game returned to familiar problems when they faced a now-ranked Salt Lake team. Unable to capitalize on chances given to them, SLCC defeated Snow 1-0 in a tight matchup, courtesy of a first-half goal by Bruin Michael Sekoni.
“The start of the season, we were playing our game,” team captain Ulises Acosta said. “Once we got into the conference play and started playing better teams, we just fell off our game. Lately, we’ve been finding it, but we’ve just been coming up short by not finishing. We’ll get lots of chances that we need to be able to put away.”
With two games left in the regular season, both teams will host USU-Eastern this Thursday, at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. On Saturday, they will finish the regular season by hosting Southern Nevada at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
