A pair of first half goals ultimately held up Sunday afternoon as the Barton Community College women’s soccer team edged past Seward County Community College 2-1 at Memorial Stadium in Dodge City.
Avenging its earlier season loss in Liberal, the Cougars improve to 4-4-0 in Jayhawk Conference play, and 7-5-0 overall, while the Saints stumble to 3-5-0 in league action and 5-4-0 on the season. Barton will next face Butler Community College on Wednesday in a 3:00 p.m. kickoff tentatively scheduled to take place at Great Bend’s Cavanaugh Field.
Benefitting from a steady 25 mile per hour south wind in the opening half, the Cougars capitalized on their opportunities.
Barton broke the ice in the 33rd minute, as Kayla Methman cleaned up Saki Takaki‘s initial denied shot that deflected off the Saints’ goalkeeper and ricocheted off the crossbar into the open net for her third goal of the year.
Sara Aguirre doubled the margin less than eight minutes later, pressuring the Saints’ backline into a turnover before converting the ensuing one-on-one chance for her team leading 10th goal of the season, giving Barton a 2-0 advantage at the halftime break.
Despite maintaining the majority of possession in the second half and battling into the wind, the Cougars couldn’t find the third tally to put the match out of reach. The Saints capitalized in the 70th minute, cutting the deficit in half as Eduarda Martins’ 35-yard win aided free kick clipped just under the crossbar and over the outstretched keeper’s arms to make it 2-1.
Barton’s backline and goalkeeping tandem of Leonie Kerle and Leonie Chambe held firm over the final 20 minutes, turning away multiple late pushes to secure the revenge victory.
BARTON SCORING SUMMARY
32:41: Kayla Methman (3); Assist: Saki Takaki (6)
40:43: Sara Aguirre (10)
