One win down. One very exciting win at that.
For the first time in school history the Barton Community College men’s soccer team took to the road to open post season play. The sixth seeded Cougars rolled into third seed Dodge City to start Region VI action Thursday on a 2-game losing streak and left town with a 3-2 overtime win to keep its season alive. The Cougars earned the win when Christopher Hogg scored in the closing seconds on the first overtime to advance Barton to quarterfinal action.
“It was a good game on both sides,” Coach Aaron Avila said.
The Cougars will now travel to Coffeyville, the second seed in the region, today for the right to advance to district play in Topeka later in the week.
The first half was full of action. Dodge City scored first when Ben Carter found the net on a pass from Mauro Hipolito 19 minutes in after the Cougars failed to clear the ball from their end of the field.
Barton tied the match with just 10 minutes left in the half as Renan Sousa took a long throw in from Garrett Pulliam and drove the ball into the top of the net. That started a crazy final 10 minutes.
Barton took a 2-1 lead a couple minutes later when Sousa scored again. The freshman put in a header off a pass from Jiro Barriga Toyama with 7:40 to play in the half.
But the scoring in the opening half wasn’t done. This time it was Dodge City changing the scoreboard. The Cougars committed a penalty in the box for the third straight game, setting up a penalty kick for Dodge. And like the previous two games the Cougars opponents made the most of its opportunity. Adrian Torres tied match on the PK with just 45 seconds left in the half.
The second half was very different as neither team found the net. In fact Barton was not able to get a shot on goal in the half while Barton keeper Austin Kail recorded four saves to keep the Cougars in the game.
That set up overtime where Hogg provided the heroics. The Scotland sophomore took a pass from Matt Sherrod in the box and split a pair of defenders to the far post past a diving Conquistador keeper Alex Rodela for the win with just 33 seconds left in the period.
“We gave up a PK and had a breakdown in the back that gave them two easy goals,” Coach Avila said. “Our guys kept battling though and we were able to the game winner inOT.”
Barton will travel to Coffeyville today - the same place the Cougars lost a 5-2 decision earlier this season. The winner goes to Topeka for a four team event that will feature the two remaining Jayhawk Conference teams and one team from Oklahoma and one from Texas for the right to advance to the NJCAA National Championships.
If the Cougars advance the would more than likely play winner Region II out of Oklahoma.