COFFEYVILLE – It was one of those early-season battles that could play big later in the season.
Unfortunately for the Barton Community College men’s soccer team the result wasn’t to its liking.
The Cougars fell at Coffeyville by a 5-2 score, leaving the Red Ravens alone atop the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference standings while Barton falls into a conglomerate of teams right behind them.
“We made some mistakes early that cost us throughout the game,” Barton head coach Aaron Avila said. “Coffeyville has a good team and we knew it would be a tough game.”
The contest got off to a good start for Barton, but Coffeyville – mainly Mike Dias – controlled the final half of the opening 45 minutes to take command of the contest heading into intermission.
Barton took a 1-0 lead15 minutes into the opening half when Dominic Swindler put the Cougars on the board following a free kick that Coffeyville was unable to get out of their end of the pitch.
That lead lasted about 10 minutes before Dias started his scoring spree for the defending conference co-champs. Dias evened the score in the 25th minute.
The final 10 minutes of the half were probably the difference in the game.
Erasmo Tejada gave Coffeyville the lead with eight minutes to play in the half, then Dais provided a decisive blow with his second goal of the half in the closing minutes. The sophomore from Brazil made it 3-1 with 5:35 to go in the first stanza.
“Making too many mistakes in the first half resulted in a 3-1 score at half,” Avila said. “This forced us to chase the game in the second half and take many risks to try and get back into it.”
Dias pushed that lead out even farther in a matter of seconds to start the final 45 minutes. Dias scored just 27 seconds into the final half to give Coffeyville a nearly insurmountable lead of 4-1.
The Cougars Christopher Hogg made it 4-2 in 53rd minute, and momentarily, Barton thought they had closed the gap even closer.
“We almost got back into,” Avila said. “When the score was 4-2 we had a goal called back that would have made it a one goal game.”
Unfortunately for the Cougars that goal was wiped out the game would stay 4-2 until the waning minutes of the contest when Dias scored for the fourth time to provide the final score of 5-2.
It was Dias’ second 4-goal game in the last three outings as he scored four times against Murray State just over one week ago.
In all, Coffeyville put 10 shots on goal, keeping Barton keeper Austin Kail busy during the evening. The Cougars got off just four shots, putting three on goal for the two goals.
Barton is now 2-1-1 in the Jayhawk and 2-3-2 overall while Coffeyville stands alone atop the conference with a 3-0 mark and a 6-2 record overall. It was the Red Ravens sixth straight win.
Barton will look to rebound Saturday when Johnson County will pay a visit to the Cougars Sports Complex in another Jayhawk contest. Johnson will bring a 1-1-1 mark into the tilt. Kick will at 3 p.m.