SENATOBIA – The Northwest Mississippi Community College Rangers men's soccer team rallied back to take their home opener on Tuesday night against Belhaven University's reserve squad 3-2, picking up their second win of the season to open a three game home stand.
The game got off to a tough start with the Blazers striking in the 17
th minute on a deflected shot that was the only score of the first half despite the Rangers out shooting Belhaven 15 to 6 in the first 45 minutes.
In the second half, things turned around for NWCC with their shots on goal finding the back of the net in quick succession in the 52
nd minute when
Ariel Vallejo evened the game after dribbling past several defenders to score his third goal of the season on an assist from
Wesley Kilpatrick.
Just a few seconds later, the Rangers took the lead thanks to a heady pass from goalkeeper
Jacob Little for a rare assist for the net minder, setting up Kilpatrick with a one on one against the Blazers goalie for his fourth goal of the season.
Tendai Machingura finished off the scoring for NWCC by burying a penalty kick in the 72
nd minute to put the Rangers up 3-1.
That would end up being the game winner after a desperate surge from Belhaven resulted in a header off of a deflected save by Little that closed the gap to 3-2 in the 88
th minute, but the Rangers finished the win for their second of the season, moving to 2-1-2 on the year.
"I think it was a fantastic win for us. We showed some resilience and we had some adversity and we fought back and got ourselves to a win. Tactics aside, it takes guts and we showed them," Head Men's Soccer Coach
Michael Sullivan said.
Defense in the second half was a key to the win as the Blazers struggled to find holes in the back four of Northwest, only attempting six shots and only placing two of them on goal.
Little finished the game with four saves on six shots on goal while the offense used their pressure to put up 24 shots, including 15 on goal.
The Rangers will return home on Friday to face National Park College at 4:00 as part of a double header with the top ranked Ranger women facing the Nighthawks at 2:00 pm. Games are free to the public to attend and will be streamed on www.nwccrangers.com/watch.
