WNFC Coyotes Move Into First Place
This past Saturday night, the Western Nevada FC Coyotes climbed to the top of the Wild West Conference and into the national top 20 rankings with the 4-1 home victory over Napa Sporting SC.
The Coyotes of Carson City took a little bit of time to get their legs underneath them Saturday for the match resulting in Napa Sporting SC producing attack after attack onto the Coyote defense. WNFC was able to get a grasp of the game and started to play their fast and furious style of soccer.
In the first 45 minutes of the game we saw end to end action with both teams producing goal scoring chances. The Coyotes were able to have a breakthrough in the 38th minute of the match when Anthony Chinchilla was able to step up and calmly tuck away the PK into the back of the net. WNFC at this point with the 1-0 lead was not satisfied.
They continued to produce many attacks keeping Napa Sporting SC on their heels. Michael Cole was able to get in behind the defense where he collected a through ball and finished it off. Cole’s Goal in the 45th minute gave WNFC the 2-0 lead heading into the half.
The Coyotes came out having to withstand Napa’s heavy pressure early on in their efforts to get a goal back in the game. Napa broke through in the 60th minute making the game a 2-1 match. Michael Cole was not going to allow this to happen as he was able to find the back of the net 6 minutes later as the Coyotes regained the two-goal advantage in the 66th minute.
Western Nevada FC began to show their outstanding conditioning at such a high altitude with the match being a mile over sea level. Fast and furious football helped to open up Nick Tunic who managed to put the game away in the 73rd minute with his goal making the match 4-1. WNFC climbed to 5-0 in the league remaining unbeaten.
GM and Head Coach, Ian Hill was thrilled about his team’s performance Saturday. Here is what he had to say following the match: “I'm very proud of the performance today. We came out flat but once we got our momentum going things really took off. We were tenacious on defense and our chances in the attacking third increased.
Michael Cole is starting to show his talent, ability, and really the potential that he possesses to be an outstanding goal scorer in this game. I also appreciated those that came off of the bench and contributed to the victory today. They did an outstanding job!”
Michael Cole has been finding his form lately this season and was able to add another 2 goals to his name Saturday night. Cole has a had this to say: “It was a huge win for the team. Obviously any chance you get to be on the top of the table is massive. Getting up 2-0 in the first half was really important. I think both individually and as a team, when you see results, it motivates you too work harder.”
Danny Towns who was stellar in the net for WNFC was very pleased with his team’s efforts Saturday. “It feels good to get three points from this game and control of the first place spot in our conference,” Town said. “The guys played great today and put away some quality goals that were set up by great ball movement and runs off the ball. We had about 20 minutes or so in the beginning of the first half where we were on our heels a little bit but we were able to gather our composure and play our game the rest of the match. I have to take my hat off to Napa though and their never say die attitude giving us a great game for all 90 minutes.”
Anthony Chinchilla all season long has been a consistent force in the middle for WNFC. The team is in form, but are not satisfied yet with still a lot of soccer to be played. Chinchilla was quoted saying, “Napa Sporting was a great opponent.
"Quality players, quality playing style but I believe our players were more talented and more fit. Great combo with me and Salifu (Jatta) again for the second game in a row, I play him with a through ball and he gets fouled in the box, I converted the pen. Great feeling getting on the score sheet but getting my assist was more pleasing to me because it came from a counter attack. I dribbled the ball about 30-45 yards without getting touched and slot the ball to Michael who had a superb finish. Quality first period from the lads. We finished off well and great finished by (Nick) Tunic and Mike (Cole).”
The Coyotes will play two Wild West Conference matches this weekend. First, they will travel to Redwood City, Calif., to take on JASA RWC on Saturday, April 28, at 7 p.m. Then on Sunday, the team will return home to take on East Bay Tecos Fire, 6 p.m. at Golden Eagle in Sparks.
That game was originally scheduled for March 24 but was postponed due to weather. Go here for more updates on our social media platforms.