Westerners Win Big in Conference Opener

Snyder, TX - Western Texas (2-6, 1-0 Region V) won their conference home opener against the Hill College Rebels ( 1-3-2, 0-1 Region V), 5-1. 

Western Texas welcomed the Hill Rebels to Weaver Field for their first conference matchup of the 2024 season. The Rebels entered with a conference loss against Ranger College last week. It was an intense start to conference play for the Westerners as both sides threatened their opponents' net. At the 41st minute, Western Texas got inside of the Rebels box as the Hill keeper fouled the striker. The foul resulted in a yellow card and a free kick outside of the box. The shot would be too high from Oumar Berete. 

In a big mishap, Florian Quast ran out of the front of the box to clear the attack. However, the boot deflected off of a Rebel and into the net for the games first score at the 36th minute, 0-1. Nearly ten minutes later, Western Texas set up for a corner kick and looked to damage the scoreboard. With chaos in the box and the ball staying in the air, Oumar Berete performed a bicycle kick to score the Westerners first goal, 1-1. At the 19th minute, another corner kick set up Western Texas to threaten the Rebels net. After multiple attempts were deflected or rerouted, Myles Taylor got behind the ball to earn his teams their first lead, 2-1. 

Western Texas continued their offensive pressure to start the second half with many opportunities on goal. Nearly 15 minutes into the second half, the Westerners found themselves in front of the Rebels net. Oscar Nunez fired from outside of the box as it deflected off of Hector Montoya for the teams third goal, 3-1. The Westerners continued to force their way towards the Rebels net as Oscar Nunez took a shot on goal. On the deflection, Taylor struck the ball to the back of the net for his second goal of the day, 4-1. At the 11th minute mark, Darrel Yetedji beat the keeper on a one touch and scored to extend Western Texas lead, 5-1. 

The Westerners finished off the matchup with the four goal lead for their first conference victory of the season, 5-1. Taylor's performance of two goals was huge for the team to help explode the offense. Berete's amazing bicycle kick goal energized his squad to start the scoring while Montoya and Yetedji aided in solidifying the huge win. 

UP NEXT: Western Texas will host FC Halcones on Tuesday, September 24th. Kickoff will be at 4pm. 

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