It was pretty simple. The winner of the Barton-Cloud County men’s soccer game Wednesday could celebrate as the Jayhawk West champion.
While Barton still had one more game left in the regular season the winner would be the champion.
A winner-take-all situation. But not all soccer matches have a winner.
That was the case between the two West rivals at the Barton Sports Complex. The winner-take-all match had no winner.
The two clubs battled to a scoreless tie through 110 minutes of play. No. 4 ranked Barton and 2-time defending West champion Cloud County could not break through and score in a grind-it-out punching match between the two titans.
The tie keeps Cloud in first place in the West with a 10-1-1 record and 31 points. Barton is second at 9-0-2 with 29 points. Cloud is done with the regular season.
Barton is not. And that is where getting a tie was huge for the Cougars.
Barton still has a date in Goodland Saturday to take on Northwest Tech. A win by Barton, and three points that come with it, and the Cougars would have their first outright Jayhawk soccer title since 2012.
After battling for 90 scoreless minutes Wednesday, the clubs traded some great opportunities in the extra periods. But both goal keepers, Barton’s Felipe Baeza and Cloud’s Charles Albuquerque came up big save after big save.
It was that way for both players the entire match.
For the Cougars, it was their fourth straight shutout. Barton has not allowed a goal the entire month of October. The last time Barton gave up a goal was in a 2-1 double overtime win at Garden City on Sept. 29.
On the season, Barton has 11 shutouts in its 16 games. The Cougars are 13-1-2. Barton has given up a total of 10 goals on the season and just six in its 11 conference games.
Now the focus turns to Lutter’s Field and Goodland on Saturday. The Cougars and Mavericks will kick things off at approximately 4 pm, following the women’s match earlier in the afternoon.
Barton defeated NW Tech 5-0 earlier in the year in Great Bend.
4 Barton 0, Cloud 0
Cloud 0 0 0 0 – 0
Barton 0 0 0 0 – 0
