The Northwest College men’s soccer team is off to a fast start for the 2019 season, compiling a 3-1-1 record against conference and non-conference opponents.

The Trappers were on the road last weekend at the K2 Technologies Tournament in Gillette, squaring off against a pair of Region IX rivals. The weekend was a mixed bag: Saturday’s contest featured a dominating 5-0 win over Central Wyoming, while Sunday was the team’s lone blemish on the season, a 6-1 loss to Gillette.

“The weekend was OK; it could have been better,” said NWC head coach Ben McArthur. “We didn’t play great Sunday [against Gillette], mentally we weren’t very tough. We probably should have scored three goals in the first 30 minutes, but it just didn’t happen for us.”

Trappers 5, Central Wyoming 0

Against Central Wyoming on Saturday, the Trappers got on the board in the game’s 18th minute, as Pedro Gallardo found the back of the net, assisted by Junwon Kim and Martin Gonzales-Gutierrez. Gonzales-Gutierrez added to the score just a minute later on a nice combo play and cross involving Marco Carrenho and Alejandro Fernandes.

“Gonzales-Gutierrez is really coming on. He’s really starting to figure out the speed and physicality of the game,” McArthur said. “He really had a nice weekend for us.”

NWC went into the half with a 2-0 lead.

“We were dominating possession, just couldn’t score more,” McArthur said. “But at the start of the second half, I kinda challenged my guys to play faster. They did, and ended up scoring three goals in seven minutes to start the second half.”

The Trappers roared out of the gate to start the second frame with a goal off the foot of Ryoyto Nakamura with just two minutes gone in the half. Taisei Goto and Fernandes assisted on the play.

Up 3-0, NWC’s Samuel Henrique found the back of the net at the 50-minute mark, with assists by Gallardo and Kelsy Franz. Gallardo closed out the scoring a minute later on a give and go from Goto for the final 5-0 score.

“Pedro Gallardo from Spain has got it figured out a little bit,” McArthur said. “He had a real nice game Friday, did some nice things for us.”

The lopsided score enabled McArthur to rotate in just about every player on a loaded bench.

“I think I was able to play 26 guys on Saturday, which is awesome,” he said. “When we get into region games, the minutes will tighten up a bit. I think we wore them out with our depth, and we just kept the ball moving. Central was chasing shadows pretty much the whole game.”

McArthur said his squad “played great.”

The Trappers are continuing to buy into their coach’s team concept, where everyone contributes.

“When our guys trust each other and play the ball quickly, it’s fun to watch and fun to coach,” he said. “We can create a lot of scoring opportunities.”

Gillette 6, Trappers 1

Against Gillette the following day, NWC didn’t have the same spark and it was reflected in the score.

“We got humbled a bit, and that’s OK,” McArthur said. “I’d rather we get humbled now, when the games don’t count for region rankings.”

The Trappers got on the board first in the game’s opening minute, with Gonzales-Gutierrez finding the back of the net off an assist by Fernandes.

Northwest continued to create chances in the game’s first half hour, though without the same result. Gillette answered with three goals to take a commanding lead at halftime.

“We gave up a couple of goals, and the wheels kind of fell off a little bit,” McArthur said. “We have to be mentally stronger and finish our chances early in the game. The game could have been over in 30 minutes if we would have finished our chances.”

Gillette scored three more times in the second half to put the game out of reach.

“Mentally, we just weren’t strong enough to fight back from a 3-1 deficit,” McArthur said. “We had a couple of guys hurt that we sure could have used, but that’s not an excuse. We’ll talk about that this week and watch some film, try to improve on some things we need to improve on.”

The Trappers are on the road again this weekend, with a pair of games scheduled in Nebraska — at Central Community College-Columbus Friday and Northeast Community College in Norfolk Saturday. Central CC is the first region game of the season for NWC.

“... we’d like to get a win to start our region,” McArthur said, though Central CC looks solid, with a few wins under its belt.

“We’ll have our hands full,” he said, “especially after a long bus trip.”