Wildcats soccer dominates Lassen

Wildcats soccer dominates Lassen

Appeal Staff Report

The Western Nevada College Wildcats soccer team shook off Saturday's Scenic West Athletic Conference loss to North Idaho College in a big way Saturday, taking a 9-0 win over Lassen at Lassen Community College.

Freshman Alexia Balmaseda did everything but sell hot dogs for the Wildcats, scoring her team-leading ninth goal to make it 3-0 and had three assists - to Jessie Chitwood, Kim Duke and Kalah Minter - and played goalkeeper in the second half, recording one save.

WNC's staring keeper Allie Otto - a Carson High School graduate - had one save in the first half before moving to forward in the second half, when she assisted Meghan Olsen to give the 'Cats an 8-0 lead.

"We wanted to play the ball around and try some different things," said WNC coach Hilary Arthur, whose Wildcats took a 17-1 victory over Lassen earlier in the season. "We were scoring off crosses, doing combinations and practiced some things - we weren't concentrating on high scoring."

The victory improved WNC to 7-3 overall after its 2-1 loss to North Idaho dropped it 0-2 and into the SWAC cellar.

"(Saturday) was a hard-fought battle - it's something that can take the wind out of your sails," Arthur said. "Today we got it back and did what we were supposed to do. We kept the shutout. I'm happy with that."

Freshman forward Jordan Forman scored her eighth goal of the season on an assist by Virginia Loyola for a 7-0 lead. Forman added a pair of assists -one each to Balmaseda and Kim Duke, who had two goals.

Carmen Manson took a feed from Devan Wellington to give the Wildcats a 5-0 lead and Cassie Romeo scored on an assist from Olsen to round out the scoring.

WNC will hit the road for Friday's game with SWAC rival Salt Lake Community College, which took the teams' first meeting 1-0.