The Barton Community College men’s soccer team begins its postseason play today at 4 p.m. at Cougar Field.
The Cougars will host Johnson County in the NJCAA Region VI quarterfinal game.
The Cavaliers are 8-4 this season, 7-4 in the region.
Barton head coach Oliver Twelvetrees said that Johnson County’s offense is really strong in jump-ball situations.
“They are very good in the air,” Twelvetrees said. “They are good in corners and set pieces. They have some tall, big players, but Yannick (Iwunze) and Mike (Evans) are very strong defenders for us.”
Offensively, the Cougars lean on Nestor Morales to create scoring opportunities.
“Nestor Morales is our strong attacking player,” Twelvetrees said. “He’s a tremendous dribbler. He can get the ball down in front of the net. We have players like Fabio (Priore) and Ahmad Bah who can finish. Morales is going to create opportunities for Bah, Jonson (Shaad), Fabio and himself.”
Barton traveled to Johnson County on Sept. 17. The Cougars left with a 3-1 victory.
Today, BCC will be giving away hot dogs and hamburgers. They also have planned a halftime activity to try to boost attendance for the home soccer game.
“They will let people shoot (penalty kicks) during halftime,” Twelvetrees said. “Our crowd last year was amazing. This year at the new field, they haven’t been what we’ve hoped for. We’re undefeated at home, but it takes some of the shine off of home games.”

Barton women end season
with 6-2 loss to Cloud
The Barton women’s soccer team saw its season come to an end on Monday in Concordia as the Lady Cougars fell to Cloud County 6-2 in the first round of the Region VI playoffs.
Despite the loss, Barton completed its fifth straight winning season by finishing with a 9-8-1 overall record. 
Barton scored first as Courtney Galliher beat the Thunderbirds defense, getting a pass from Jordan Gallacher to give Barton a 1-0 lead just 20 seconds into the game.
The T-birds responded by scoring the next five goals in a spree that lasted eight minutes, making the score 5-1.
Barton closed the gap to three with 19:23 on the clock thanks to a Gallacher free-kick goal, but couldn’t get any closer as Cloud carried a 5-2 advantage into the break.
In the second half the T-birds put the game away, scoring with 4:35 remaining.
“The season didn’t end the way we obviously would have wanted it to end,” Barton head coach Shawn Uhlenhake said. “Despite challenges we’ve faced, we still had a successful year and look forward to building upon that for next year.”
The Lady Cougars will lose 10 sophomores who went 23-15-1 in their two seasons.

Barton volleyball team beats Cloud, secures conference title
The Barton volleyball team bounced back from its first conference loss last week to sweep Cloud County Monday night at Kirkman Activity Center.
The Lady Cougars beat Cloud, 25-16, 25-14 and 25-22. With the victory, Barton clinched the Kansas Jayhawk Community College West Division title with one match remaining on Wednesday against Seward County
It also secured the No. 1 seed in next week’s NJCAA Region VI tournament. Barton improves to 12-1 in conference play and 24-11 overall.