Walla Walla Community College’s men’s soccer team closed out the home portion of its 2017 schedule Saturday afternoon with a 3-2 victory over North Idaho in a Northwest Athletic Conference men’s soccer match at windy and wet Warrior Field.
The Warriors moved into second place in the East with an 8-3 record, and are 11-4 overall.
“Good day for us overall,” WWCC coach Ben Rotert said. “It’s always fun to clinch a playoff spot at home. Very, very happy for the guys!”
The Warriors’ Freddy Rodriguez scored the game’s first goal, assisted by Missael Lopez, with about 18 minutes gone in the first half.
Irvin Angulo brought North Idaho even 12 minutes later.
Alberto Anguiano made the most of an Enrique Leal assist at the 39-minute mark to put WWCC up 2-1.
Rodriguez scored his second goal of the match, assisted by Juan Martinez, nine minutes into the second half to build the Walla Walla lead to 3-1.
“I was encouraged with our attacking,” Rotert said. “I was very excited to see us get three goals and create a lot of good opportunities.”
Cade Roske halved the two-goal Warrior cushion with an unassisted marker 61 minutes into the contest.
Roske had a chance to knot the score with two minutes remaining in the final half, but sailed a penalty kick over the cross bar.
“Happy with how we started the game,” Rotert said. “We still need to work on defending leads. We let them back into the match.
“Credit to NIC,” Rotert said. “They attacked well needing a win to keep their post-season possibilities alive. They put us under a lot of pressure.”
WWCC ends the regular season on Wednesday at Columbia Basin in Pasco.
Union Bulletin
