SENATOBIA – It was a tale of two halves for Northwest Mississippi Community College men's soccer (5-5-2, 3-2) on Tuesday night against East Central Community College (4-3-3, 3-2-1), with the Rangers falling 4-1 to the Warriors despite getting on the scoreboard first and winning most of the statistical categories through the night.
"It's a good team, and they had a solid performance," Head Coach Windham Whatley said. "East Central made some adjustments, and it paid off for them. The biggest takeaway is putting chances away. They put their chances away, and we didn't."
Northwest opened the scoring early with a goal in the ninth minute coming from the first corner kick opportunity of the night, with Joseph Jackson picking up his sixth assist of the year on a header from Carragher Mawer to put the Rangers in front 1-0.
That score would hold until the Warriors evened the match in the 28th minute thanks to a strike from Joseph Aguirre after he was left open in front of the goal, thanks to Camilo Lopez Sanchez drawing the defense's attention on a run to the endline, feeding it back to the top of the six-yard box for the open shot.
East Central struck again in the 49th minute when Sanchez, who leads the Warriors in goals scored and assists, picked up his seventh goal of the year on a free kick that slipped in from 25 yards out, giving the Warriors the lead.
Northwest had opportunities to tie the match, putting 23 total shots up in the match, but they had trouble with accuracy as only nine shots in the match were on frame. They also piled up 15 corner kicks, including nine in the second half, but after the opening goal, they weren't able to find any more success.
On the other side, Sanchez picked up a second goal on a ball that was served over the defense, leading to a one-on-one for his second goal of the game in the 71st minute. The final stroke came in the 81st minute on a goal from 25 yards out when Daniel Ducculi made it 4-1.
The Rangers won't have much time to rebound from the match, as they will be heading to Poplarville on Thursday afternoon after their match with Pearl River Community College (8-0-2, 6-0) kicking off at 4 p.m.
"We have to manage our legs and manage the next week," Whatley said. "Obviously, we have another tough one with driving down to Pearl River, so we have to manage our emotions because we still have multiple games to play."
Keep up with Northwest men's soccer by visiting nwccrangers.com or by following along with Ranger social media accounts.
