Laramie Splits Soccer Doubleheader Against Cheyenne East

The Number One ranked Laramie Lady Plainsmen soccer team suffered their first loss of the season, while the second ranked Laramie Plainsmen captured their fifth consecutive victory Saturday in 4A East Conference action. The LHS girls lost to #4 East 3-2 in overtime, while the LHS boys got a 2-1 win over #5 East.

The top-ranked Laramie Lady Plainsmen (5-1, 3-1) fell for the first time this year, as the #4 Cheyenne Lady T-Birds upset them 3-2 in overtime this past Saturday at the IPF on the UW campus. LHS scored twice in the final six minutes of regulation to force the extra period. Junior's Jacqui Pulley and Haley Moon tallied unassisted goals that tied it at 2-2, but East netted the game-winner in the 116th minute of action and held off the Lady Plainsmen in the final four minutes of OT.

Lady Plainsmen Coach Kim Whisenant said, "We're battling some injuries and trying to keep some players on the field that we'd live to rest, but can't. I think it was a situation where we didn't clear it, and they got the open shot which (they) shouldn't have. It's a game, and you've just got to battle from beginning to the end and not have any mental breaks, and I think that was one of our mental breaks."

Laramie has had their postponed match against #3 Cheyenne Central pushed back yet again. Laramie High School officials announced today that the Tuesday re-scheduled home match versus the Lady Indians will be played on Monday, April 22. The varsity match will start at 5 p.m.

Things keep rolling along in a positive direction for the #2 Laramie Plainsmen (5-1-1, 3-0-1), as they downed the 5th-ranked East Thunderbirds by a final of 2-1. The win was the fifth straight for the LHS boys. Freshmen Cameron Campbell and Junior Blake Wright scored the goals for Laramie. East's lone goal came late in the match during additional injury time.

Plainsmen head coach Andy Pannell was a bit disappointed to give up the late goal, but said, "Overall the guys played well. I thought we created quite a few good chances in the second half, and possibly could have scored a few more goals. I thought we cleaned things up in the second half defensively. We were giving up a few things here and there, and we cleaned that up in the second half and passed the ball really well."

With the weather wreaking havoc on the spring sports season, including the second postponement of Tuesday's make-up match for the LHS girls to next week, it sets up a very busy stretch for both squads. Starting this Friday, both the Laramie teams will play four matches in a five day span. Three of those are 4A East Conference games against Sheridan, Gillette and Cheyenne Central. The final match in the stretch is a non-conference tilt at Kelly Walsh.